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Speaker 1: Hellllo, everybody, welcome back. Hey, then we're here with another

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Speaker 1: um you know what, let's do this, Diana get me.

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Speaker 1: An adjective describing today's episode audacious. Welcome to another audacious

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Speaker 1: episode of Ridiculous Romance. I'm into it, different words every time.

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Speaker 1: There's enough words. There's so many words there are Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, there are so many words chose yes, and

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Speaker 1: we're going to use a lot of them today to

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Speaker 1: tell you this very audacious story. We're so glad you

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Speaker 1: tuned in. We're so glad you're back. We hope you've

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Speaker 1: been enjoying, uh, your various weekends and your Facebook shutdowns,

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Speaker 1: and it's a hard day, I hope not procrastinating online.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I was on Twitter so much

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Speaker 1: more today than I usually know what happened. That's what

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Speaker 1: I've don't post very often for myself, but I've been

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Speaker 1: on a more are because Fringe has a show coming

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Speaker 1: up this weekend that we're producing. So I'm trying to promote,

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Speaker 1: you know, the show, and so I got beyond the

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Speaker 1: social media and it was a real hard day to day.

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Speaker 1: So we're like, no, the whole day of ads gone,

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Speaker 1: let's do it. If you're in Atlanta on October eight nine,

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Speaker 1: Atlanta Fringe in Metropolitan Studios in East Atlanta Village. We're

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Speaker 1: partnering to to do some Pride weekend programming, so we

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Speaker 1: have a bunch of lgbt Q performances, including Gay History

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Speaker 1: for Straight People, which is uh Leola Ladyland, a lesbian,

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Speaker 1: redneck senior citizen drag queen, and she'll be taking us

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Speaker 1: through the wonderful world of gayness from anal beats to

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Speaker 1: unicorns and she's so fun she's so funny. And then

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Speaker 1: there's a big, like an amazing burlesque and drag lineup

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Speaker 1: that Metropolitan Studios is bringing. We're doing a virtual drag

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Speaker 1: Queen storytelling hour on Saturday. We have a panel of

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Speaker 1: artists talking about the intersection of art making an identity.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm very happy for the very strict COVID

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Speaker 1: protocols required by the venue, which is you have to

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Speaker 1: show proof of vaccination at the door and you have

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Speaker 1: to wear a mask the whole time you're inside. So

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Speaker 1: it's just a small space, so they don't want to

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Speaker 1: take any chances, I know, right, We want people to

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Speaker 1: take their We want to see titties, We don't want

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Speaker 1: to see your mouth. So if you are in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: this very weekend, October eight, n I know that that's

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Speaker 1: only mere days after this episode airs, so regular listeners

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Speaker 1: you might catch it. Um if you show up and

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Speaker 1: find us and tell us you heard about it from

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Romance, we will be very happy to hear. All

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Speaker 1: that being said, we're excited to get right into today's episode.

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Speaker 1: This episode was suggested through Instagram um by Chelsea She's

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Speaker 1: woe I'm tripping on Instagram. So thank you so much

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Speaker 1: Chelsea for this idea. This was a really good one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we really enjoyed that, very excited and also got me

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Speaker 1: to watch this movie which I've always wanted to see.

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Speaker 1: I Love You, Philip Morris, Jim Carrying You and McGregor

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Speaker 1: and it's excellent and we'll be talking about that with

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Speaker 1: the episode as well. Ye. So Stephen J. Russell was

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Speaker 1: working as a deputy with the local police and he

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Speaker 1: was married with a young daughter. But then one day

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Speaker 1: everything changed and he left his family to live openly

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Speaker 1: as a gay man. But he also financed his life

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Speaker 1: with a series of scams and frauds and a bunch

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Speaker 1: of other criminal behavior. And when one of his cons

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Speaker 1: landed him in the clink, he ended up meeting the

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Speaker 1: love of his life, Philip Morris. And that's just the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the story. It sure is. And this story

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Speaker 1: is all over the place. So let's you will laugh.

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Speaker 1: Let's do it? Yes, please? Hey the French conblution. Well,

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Speaker 1: Elia and Diana got some joys to tell. There's no matchmaking,

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Speaker 1: a romantic tips. It's just about pardiculous relationships, a lover.

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Speaker 1: It might be any type of person at all, and

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Speaker 1: abstract conste But if there's a story, a second clinch,

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Speaker 1: ridiculous roles production of iHeart Radio. Stephen Russell was born

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Speaker 1: on September ninety seven. If he had been born one

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Speaker 1: minute earlier, he would have been a Friday baby. It's

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Speaker 1: a little Halloween for you. Um. He lived in Virginia.

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Speaker 1: He was raised by David and Georgia Russell, who ran

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Speaker 1: one of the largest food produce companies in the state,

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Speaker 1: and when he was twelve, they sat him down to

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Speaker 1: inform him that he had actually been adopted in a

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Speaker 1: very weird way, in an illegal transaction where they basically

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Speaker 1: met in a parking lot and traded a wad of

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Speaker 1: cash for a squattled infants. Yeah, obviously this is like

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Speaker 1: a really hard and confusing thing for a twelve year

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Speaker 1: old to learn, and it certainly showed itself in some

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Speaker 1: behavioral issues. All of his cousins kind of teased him

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Speaker 1: about a lot. I mean, you know, everybody's big brother,

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Speaker 1: older cousins whatever. I love to tell them they were adopted,

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Speaker 1: you know. But he's struck back in a big way.

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Speaker 1: He burned down his cousin's garage and another time he

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Speaker 1: set fire to a classmates jacket in school and it

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Speaker 1: like damaged the wall. Sure fire, that fire does do damage. Surprise,

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Speaker 1: surprise to things other than what you said on fire.

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Speaker 1: Very often a lot of unintended consequences with fire. Um.

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Speaker 1: So of course this caught people's attention because they noticed

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Speaker 1: that ship. And he spent thirty days in a hospital

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Speaker 1: psychiatric ward and then nine months in the Hanover Boys Home,

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Speaker 1: you know, getting link anger management therapy. They're trying to

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Speaker 1: help him figure out some things. Um. And then he

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Speaker 1: was released on Friday seventy one. Friday thirteenth became his

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Speaker 1: lucky day after that. That's to Friday. During his time

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Speaker 1: at the boys home, Stephen says, that he discovered his

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Speaker 1: i Q which is a hundred and sixty three, so

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Speaker 1: he's like a genius level intelligence. That he experienced physical

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Speaker 1: abuse from the older and larger boys in this boy's

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Speaker 1: home who were also there because of some criminal tendencies.

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Speaker 1: Of course they were probably pretty rough, And that he

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Speaker 1: also had homosexual experiences in this boy's home that he

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Speaker 1: found enjoyable and he was like, oh, I actually like that. Um,

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Speaker 1: so that was something he learned. Those were things he

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Speaker 1: learned about himself. And while he was in this boy's home. Now,

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Speaker 1: after he got out of the home, he did shape

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Speaker 1: up for a while. When he was eighteen, he joined

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Speaker 1: the family produce business. Or it turned out that his father,

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Speaker 1: David Russell, had been conspiring with other Virginia companies to

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Speaker 1: fix the price of produce sold to Virginia school districts. Yikes,

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Speaker 1: so say and right away Stephen contributed to these schemes

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Speaker 1: by convincing his dad to get a few more new

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Speaker 1: contracts that he could price fix. Two. He's like, I

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Speaker 1: want in dad, this looks cool. I can do this.

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Speaker 1: Those new contracts U s military bases. I'm not smart

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Speaker 1: the military. They have a little more know how about

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Speaker 1: like shady ship. They're a little more vigilant than your

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Speaker 1: average school district. And they immediately smelled something fishy about

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Speaker 1: this produce. They were like, this is produced, the should

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Speaker 1: not smell like fish. But all I'm getting this tuna.

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Speaker 1: So they quickly issued indictments against all five produced companies,

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Speaker 1: and his dad rolled over and helped. The investigation ended

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Speaker 1: up for him with just a fine and a probation sentence.

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Speaker 1: That's not so bad. Not so bad for dad. They

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Speaker 1: gotta do is snitch on your other produce guys. I

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Speaker 1: guess I'll give up my tomato gun. I guess. I

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Speaker 1: guess the like threat of snitches get stitches isn't as

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Speaker 1: strong coming from like the vegetable guys, big zucchini. But

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Speaker 1: Stephen was never implicated, so he may have also rolled over.

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Speaker 1: There's some suspicion amongst I guess the produced community. Then

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Speaker 1: he may be rolled over on them as well. He

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Speaker 1: rolled over like a like a unripe pepper. The peppers

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Speaker 1: roll over if they're not ripe, they do. He rolled

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Speaker 1: over like a hard tomato. Yeah, there you go, like

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Speaker 1: a melon. Yeah. So yeah, as far as anybody knew,

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Speaker 1: he was a law abiding susan Um. He played the

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Speaker 1: organ at his local church every Sunday, and he volunteered

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Speaker 1: as a deputy police officer, and he married the chief

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Speaker 1: of Police's secretary, Debbie, and then they had a daughter together, Stephanie.

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Speaker 1: So it's just this regular roll, suburban family man in Virginia.

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Speaker 1: Is everything chills normal. I'm kind of boring, actually, kind

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Speaker 1: of a normal dude. Until he decided to use his

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Speaker 1: access as a deputy to find his birth mother. So

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Speaker 1: it's a little bit um shady to do that because

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Speaker 1: obviously she probably didn't want to be found right right,

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Speaker 1: If it takes the police to track you down, then

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Speaker 1: you didn't want to be tracked down. But he was like,

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Speaker 1: whatever rules don't apply to me. We'll see many times

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Speaker 1: in the story he's like, let me look look her up.

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Speaker 1: And she still lived in the area, so she was

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Speaker 1: still local. Was not hard to find her. His birth

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Speaker 1: parents names were Thomas and Brenda Basham, and when he

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Speaker 1: confronted them, he discovered that he was the second of

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Speaker 1: their four children and he was the only one that

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Speaker 1: they had given up for adoption. That's, I mean, wrenching happens.

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Speaker 1: But you gotta wonder what it's not the kind of

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Speaker 1: thing you want to discover. I mean, that would definitely

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Speaker 1: leave you with a lot of questions. Yeah, even if

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Speaker 1: you had a great excuse for it, I think would

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Speaker 1: be incredibly hard not to still be like, oh, I

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Speaker 1: guess I was just this one gross kid or whatever.

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Speaker 1: And at first Brenda did not believe that he was

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Speaker 1: her son. She kind of like pushed him away again,

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Speaker 1: but eventually she and his siblings like accepted him into

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Speaker 1: their lives for a while. Now, around the time David,

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Speaker 1: his father, and the other produced companies are rolling over

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Speaker 1: the FEDS, Stephen and his wife Debbie, and daughter Stephanie

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Speaker 1: moved to book O Raton, Florida, where he was hired

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Speaker 1: as a patrol man focusing on d w I arrests.

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Speaker 1: But he was fired a year later for repeatedly calling

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Speaker 1: in sick while trying to get a new job at

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Speaker 1: the Florida Highway Patrol. So they ended up kid, come in,

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Speaker 1: got an interview, Yeah right, So they ended up moving

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Speaker 1: back to Virginia, but he was arrested there for stealing

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Speaker 1: jewelry and computers. I was only sentenced to five years

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Speaker 1: in probation, so not too bad. We'll slap on the wrists.

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Speaker 1: I mean for stealing jewelry and computers in the in

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Speaker 1: the eighties. Yeah, I mean computers. How do you even

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Speaker 1: steal a computer in the eighties, they were as big

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Speaker 1: as a house. You like, put it under his shirt.

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Speaker 1: But he can't leave the building. It's got a whole

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Speaker 1: semi truck backed up. Forklip is coming in and out.

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Speaker 1: I've almost got half the computer loaded. Boss just stayed

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Speaker 1: a few more hours. We'll come back tomorrow. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: he got another produced job, this time with wholesale grocery

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Speaker 1: company Cisco Plastic Cisco Thong Song. This required him to

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Speaker 1: relocate to Houston, Texas, and Debbie and Stephanie stayed in

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Speaker 1: Virginia while Stephen went ahead to Houston, and it was

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Speaker 1: like a whole new world for Stephen. His biographer Steve

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Speaker 1: mcvickor wrote, he had done the circuit of anonymous bathroom

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Speaker 1: sex in Norfolk area parks for years, so he'd still

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Speaker 1: been kind of, you know, trying to get some gay

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Speaker 1: experiences on the down low while he was still married. Um.

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Speaker 1: But the Montrose area of Houston was known for having

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Speaker 1: a large homosexual community. They had like a plethora of

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Speaker 1: gay bars. This is something he didn't have access to

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Speaker 1: in Virginia, so it was like, I think, went straight

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Speaker 1: to his head. Probably he got very He went out

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Speaker 1: a lot. He got very familiar with that world by

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Speaker 1: the time Debbie and Stephanie joined him in Houston in January,

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Speaker 1: and for over a year, he kept his flings a secret,

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Speaker 1: so he was still going out in this community. He

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Speaker 1: was still he was doing like some drugs, and he

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Speaker 1: was meeting men anonymously and and having flings and stuff

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Speaker 1: like that. But Debbie didn't know anything about it until

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Speaker 1: in April six he was in a terrible car accident

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Speaker 1: coming home late from one of his nights out, and

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Speaker 1: Debbie nursed him back to health. But she had kind

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Speaker 1: of started to suspect that he was cheating on her,

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Speaker 1: so he finally came clean about his sexuality. He confessed

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Speaker 1: to her that he was gay. They agreed to divorce,

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Speaker 1: but they remained close friends, which I think is pretty

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Speaker 1: cool because Debbie was like a very religious person and

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Speaker 1: you know, in this conservative area and could have gone

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Speaker 1: very differently, very very differently, So I think that says

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Speaker 1: a lot about her. Yeah, good for Debbie. Like Debbie

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Speaker 1: the this week thanks Debbie. Yea. So Debbie took Stephanie

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Speaker 1: back to Virginia, leaving him, you know, in Houston to

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Speaker 1: his new life. In the early nineties, Stephen was working

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Speaker 1: as a sales manager for a food service company in

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Speaker 1: Houston and they found out that he was gay, and

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Speaker 1: it was the early nineties in Texas, so they were

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Speaker 1: able to just fire him for that. That, of course,

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Speaker 1: really screwed with his head and he felt like he'd

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Speaker 1: lost control of his life. At that point, he was angry,

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Speaker 1: and he decided, you know what, I'm done with this.

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Speaker 1: I'm sick of you know, slaving away for the man.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it out on them. And he went

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Speaker 1: out and started selling fake Rolex watches. You know, he'd

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Speaker 1: had it. Why live legitimately when I can't even be

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Speaker 1: who I am without them coming after me. I tried

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Speaker 1: to keep a good job. Screw it, he went and

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Speaker 1: started selling watches. Did he come Foleix? Probably? And they

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Speaker 1: should have. And then soon after that he maybe took

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Speaker 1: it a step further and went ahead and defrauded an

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Speaker 1: insurance company for thousand dollars for pretending to hurt himself

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Speaker 1: in a fall. Been in ninety two, he was arrested

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Speaker 1: for lud behavior, the insurance fraud, and submitting a fake

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Speaker 1: passport application. All this is pretty rough, and it landed

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Speaker 1: him a ten year sentence in Harris County Jail. And

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Speaker 1: at the time, he was dating a man named Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Kempbell who had recently actually been diagnosed with AIDS, and

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Speaker 1: in the early nineties, AIDS was pretty much a death

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Speaker 1: sentence for most people, sadly, and Stephen was really mostly

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Speaker 1: just terrified of being in prison unable to care for

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Speaker 1: this guy that he loved. He knew that with this

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Speaker 1: long sentence, which was all stacked up for his multiple

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Speaker 1: c he knew by the time he got out for

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Speaker 1: all that Jimmy would be dead. So obviously he had

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Speaker 1: to get out of prison, right So Stephen watched, and

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Speaker 1: he learned, and he planned. He observed the shift changes

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Speaker 1: of the guards for four weeks, and during that time

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Speaker 1: he managed to collect a pair of plane sweatpants as

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Speaker 1: well as a tie dyed T shirt from a room

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Speaker 1: where they stored personal items of female in mace. Okay,

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Speaker 1: not seeing how this is gonna get anybody out of prison,

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Speaker 1: but go on, all he needed was like an accessory

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Speaker 1: to give him an air of authority. So he lifted

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Speaker 1: a spare radio that the guards usually carried, like a

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Speaker 1: little walkie talkie, and he stashed all that ship away.

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Speaker 1: He waited for the guards to go on their usual

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Speaker 1: smoke break, and then he quickly put on the outfit

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Speaker 1: and he casually walks over to the door and he

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Speaker 1: taps on the window of the glass with the walkie talkie.

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Speaker 1: He had seen like other guards do this before and

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Speaker 1: they would just open the door. And so the guards

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Speaker 1: thought he was an undercover police officer, dressed for the street,

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Speaker 1: I guess. And they opened the gate and Stephen walked

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Speaker 1: right out the front door of one of the busiest

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Speaker 1: and most secure jails in Texas. He said, those first

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Speaker 1: moments of freedom felt amazing, such an adrenaline rush. Best

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Speaker 1: of all, I knew I would get to see and

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Speaker 1: take care of Jimmy, and that he did. He went

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Speaker 1: straight to his apartment where Jimmy had been staying, and

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Speaker 1: he told him, Hey, uh, we gotta go, and we

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Speaker 1: gotta go now. And so they packed up and they

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Speaker 1: planned ahead to Mexico. But then less than a week later,

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Speaker 1: they were down in the Miami Airport getting ready to

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Speaker 1: leave the country for good, and the police were there waiting.

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Speaker 1: Stephen was arrested again and brought back to court. Now

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Speaker 1: the judge ordered a bail of only twenty thousand dollars,

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Speaker 1: which Stephen was actually easily able to pay, what with

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Speaker 1: all I guess the Moneys, with all the fraud. And

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Speaker 1: while on bail, they managed to get themselves on a

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Speaker 1: plane and they flew to Mexico City time the party

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00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:08,880
Speaker 1: number one flight risk Stephen Russelling. After they landed, Stephen

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00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,760
Speaker 1: called the Harris County Sheriff and told him he was

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Speaker 1: in the Dominican Republic, and he told the sheriff, I

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Speaker 1: hope you don't blame my escape on those guards who

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Speaker 1: were out there taking a smoke break. You could fix

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Speaker 1: the problem if you just allowed smoking back in jail,

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Speaker 1: to which the sheriff replied, fuck you. Who else are

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Speaker 1: you supposed to respond to that? So they lived it

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Speaker 1: up in Mexico for a while, but eventually money troubles

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00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:40,560
Speaker 1: caught up to them again, and Jimmy's health also began

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Speaker 1: to deteriorate, and proper medical care wasn't really available, so

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Speaker 1: they were forced to return to the US. Jimmy spent

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Speaker 1: two years on the land with Stephen before the authorities

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Speaker 1: finally caught up with them, which is pretty good. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he must have been taking pretty good care Jimmy, I

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00:17:56,040 --> 00:18:01,040
Speaker 1: think so. Yeah, but yeah. Ultimately, another insurance scam went wrong,

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00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:06,040
Speaker 1: bungled up, and Stephen was back before a judge. He said,

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Speaker 1: the last time I saw Jimmy, he was in a

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Speaker 1: holding cell in front of me, and Stephen was sentenced

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00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,679
Speaker 1: to six months. They spoke every day, but Jimmy was

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Speaker 1: getting weaker all the time. Now. Jimmy was also supposed

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Speaker 1: to be in jail because he was totally an accomplice

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Speaker 1: to some of these insurance scams and stuff like that,

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Speaker 1: but he'd been given a compassionate release because of his illness.

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Speaker 1: They basically sent him home to die, you know, they

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Speaker 1: would like, don't stay here. And that gave Stephen the

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Speaker 1: idea to fake having AIDS as well. Crazy, so a

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Speaker 1: doctor on the inside in the jail coached him about

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Speaker 1: the symptoms, which he was probably pretty familiar with anyway,

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Speaker 1: after taking jim um and he also falsified his prison

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00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:53,919
Speaker 1: health records to include a positive lab test and they

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00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:57,959
Speaker 1: never checked for themselves, like he looked so bad on

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Speaker 1: paper that when he petitioned at the readies to drop

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00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 1: his federal charges, they did. Wow. They were like, fine, sure,

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Speaker 1: I guess you're sick. So that that took care of

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Speaker 1: some charges, okay, But he had a lot of charges,

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00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,760
Speaker 1: many many charges. So there was still the matter of

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00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:22,000
Speaker 1: this six months sentence left to serve. And then only

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00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:25,080
Speaker 1: a few weeks into that six month sentence, while Stephen

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Speaker 1: was enacting this great plan, Jimmy passed away and said

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Speaker 1: he had his dog lying on his bed beside him

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00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:38,360
Speaker 1: back in his home in Florida. Stephen, of course was devastated,

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Speaker 1: but he was stuck in Harris County Jail and he

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Speaker 1: was actually a waiting transfer to a state penitentiary. He

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00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:49,320
Speaker 1: spent months escaping into books, this time at the prison

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Speaker 1: law library, where one day in December he met fellow

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00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:59,439
Speaker 1: inmate Philip Morris. And I say that we meet fellow

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00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:03,480
Speaker 1: inmate phil at Morris right after a little commercial break,

336
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,159
Speaker 1: and we're back. So Philip Morris, this fellow inmate that

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00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,080
Speaker 1: Steven Russell just bumped into in the law library. He

338
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:19,600
Speaker 1: was a small, blonde, soft spoken man. He was diabetic,

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00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:22,080
Speaker 1: and he didn't have a lot of impulse control. So

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00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,560
Speaker 1: he had this habit of going into like gas stations

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00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 1: or seven eleven or something and buying twelve donuts and

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00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: then eating them all at once. Um, which I don't

343
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:33,399
Speaker 1: know a lot about diabetes, but as I understand it,

344
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:38,159
Speaker 1: that's really bad. But he was hardly a criminal mastermind.

345
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:42,600
Speaker 1: I mean, Sky was just a sweet little dude like sugar.

346
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,040
Speaker 1: But in when he was only twenty years old, he

347
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 1: rented a car to move from Houston to Atlanta, and

348
00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,480
Speaker 1: he was arrested for never returning the rental car kind

349
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,240
Speaker 1: of just hung onto it a little too long. How

350
00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 1: is that a mistake? Do you hang on the rental car? Well,

351
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 1: it probably wasn't an accident. It was probably just like

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00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:07,040
Speaker 1: just ship, I still need this car. I still need

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00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 1: this car. And eventually, you know, you kinda it kind

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00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,280
Speaker 1: of becomes normal to you, you know, and you stopped, Yeah,

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00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:15,400
Speaker 1: you stopped making the payments, and then you're like, oh, shoot,

356
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 1: I should pay for that car, and the next thing

357
00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:19,600
Speaker 1: you know, months have gone by. I get it. That's

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00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 1: all I'm saying. Have you still in a rental car? No?

359
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 1: I'm just saying for a slippery mind like mine, it

360
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:27,440
Speaker 1: wouldn't be that hard to let it slide for a

361
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:32,719
Speaker 1: little too long. So he was arrested, and you know,

362
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:35,480
Speaker 1: they set up a series of restitution payments that he

363
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:37,840
Speaker 1: was gonna have to pay in lieu of jail time.

364
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:41,640
Speaker 1: Years later, he was struggling to keep up with these

365
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: payments and he was arrested again for breaking his probation,

366
00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:49,640
Speaker 1: and that landed him in Texas Harris County Jail. In December,

367
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,560
Speaker 1: he was in the law library researching something for his

368
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,840
Speaker 1: dying cell mate. And he's only five ft two. Like

369
00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:58,480
Speaker 1: we said, this is a little guy. And he was

370
00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:01,840
Speaker 1: reaching for a book on a very high shelf and

371
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:06,120
Speaker 1: suddenly this hand reaches up and grabs it for him

372
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 1: with ease. He hands it to him and it was

373
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:13,800
Speaker 1: Steven Russell, who was six ft two, so big height

374
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: difference between them a full foot. And he told Philip,

375
00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:20,360
Speaker 1: you know, hey, don't hesitate if you got any questions

376
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,840
Speaker 1: at all. I'm a lawyer, so you can ask me.

377
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 1: He even opened up the Texas Legal directory as proof

378
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,360
Speaker 1: and pointed to his name, see Stephen J. Russell. Philip

379
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,639
Speaker 1: later said, we had these little arm bands that have

380
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 1: our prison i D number and our birthdate, and it

381
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: all matched up he was a lawyer. I believed it,

382
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:41,800
Speaker 1: Stephen said in an interview. Oh, I told him all

383
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 1: kinds of bullshit. You don't expect to meet someone cool

384
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 1: in jail. You expect to meet derelicts. And damn was

385
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 1: I wrong. Damn. So he's like I just said, some ship,

386
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 1: but then he turned out to be cool. So Stephen

387
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,679
Speaker 1: and Philip are in jail together and they just completely

388
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 1: fall for each other. Philip's birthday was even a Friday,

389
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 1: Steven's lucky day. So I mean this, ding ding ding,

390
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:09,359
Speaker 1: This is a sign lighting up like we are meant

391
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 1: to be together for Steven right, and Philip had been

392
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: kind of reclusive and shy in prison, like shy like

393
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: you've got I mean, I mean, there's definitely a system

394
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 1: of clicks I think you have to figure out. But

395
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 1: he basically kept to himself to kind of stay out

396
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 1: of harm's way as best as he could self preservation,

397
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: I think. But Stephen, he knew the system well, and

398
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:32,199
Speaker 1: he had like a whole network going on. He was

399
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:35,560
Speaker 1: connected to other prisoners, to guards and even the outside world,

400
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:41,400
Speaker 1: and he used those connections to get transferred as Philip's cellmate.

401
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Let me go live with my boyfriend for

402
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 1: a while. Right, If this is prison, lock me up

403
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:54,480
Speaker 1: thro the key. Philip said, we just had a bond

404
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 1: that can't be described. We were so in tune with

405
00:23:57,440 --> 00:23:59,879
Speaker 1: each other and we could sit and not even speak.

406
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 1: The next spring, both of them were released on parole,

407
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: Stephen in October of and Philip just two months later.

408
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: So they left prison to people who had fallen completely

409
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 1: in love, and they decided to start over with a

410
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: brand new life, and they bought a modest home in

411
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,399
Speaker 1: clear Lake, and they decided to put their criminal pass

412
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: behind them. But it wasn't long before they needed some money. Sure, sure,

413
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,959
Speaker 1: you need money. And to Stephen, some money was an option.

414
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:37,120
Speaker 1: I wanted to like lots of money. Yeah right, So

415
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: he called a friend and he was able to cash

416
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 1: out a not so legit life insurance policy that he

417
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 1: had taken out on Jimmy Kimple, Yeah, his ex. At

418
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: this point, he had actually taken out multiple life insurance

419
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:54,479
Speaker 1: policies on Jimmy, so not exactly how things are supposed

420
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 1: to go. So he did some more insurance broad and

421
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,880
Speaker 1: Stephen said, we bought each other Mrs eighties. It was outrageous,

422
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 1: but we were on parole and we were free, so

423
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 1: we had a good time. Hey, you know, so you know,

424
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:09,040
Speaker 1: we're like, you know, I've got a lot of work

425
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 1: to do, but fuck it, it's Saturday. I'm not gonna

426
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: do it. And you're like, hey, you know, all this

427
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 1: is illegal, but you know what, we're on parole. Let's

428
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: live large, let's go crazy. You think you'd be more

429
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 1: careful on parole than time, but you might think a

430
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 1: lot of things that don't end up being true about

431
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:31,280
Speaker 1: Steven Russell, that's true too. At some point he needed

432
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 1: a real job, though, right to pay for this lavish

433
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 1: lifestyle like your average life insurance policy that those weren't

434
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 1: going to keep paying out forever, and they were buying

435
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 1: each other Mercedes like they needed some income. So he

436
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: got to work on his resume. He said, I'm going

437
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:49,679
Speaker 1: to get a job, which of course meant he lied

438
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 1: like crazy on his resume and went and stole a job.

439
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,959
Speaker 1: He managed to get himself hired at North American Medical

440
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 1: Management or NAM. Remember back in NAMA, which is a

441
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,879
Speaker 1: company that oversaw the business affairs of private doctors and

442
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:10,439
Speaker 1: medical clinics. All the phone numbers on his CV just

443
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: went straight back to Stephen, and he was a master

444
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: at disguising his voice, so he would just answer the phone,

445
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 1: give himself a review and a reference, and after an

446
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,880
Speaker 1: interview and a few phone calls, Stephen was hired at

447
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 1: NAM as their chief financial officer. He got a c

448
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:33,400
Speaker 1: suite job on a lie. I mean, I was afraid

449
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: to to like list all the roles I've gotten, like

450
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,239
Speaker 1: on an acting resume for an unpaid theater gig. You know, like,

451
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:42,760
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I shouldn't even put this one because

452
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: it wasn't that big of a part. I'm always like,

453
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: don't say no Excel. You don't know excel. You're so

454
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: bad at this. Guy's like, I can run you the

455
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: financial operations of your company. Let me lie a whole

456
00:26:54,880 --> 00:27:01,120
Speaker 1: life of financial excellence. He has no experience in finance.

457
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: He has no actual history of employment at all, really,

458
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: not in anything like this and that of nowhere. He

459
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,639
Speaker 1: gets hired under these guys with a starting salary of

460
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:18,879
Speaker 1: like ninety dollars a year, in which calculating transferredly is

461
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty six thousand today. WHOA. So it's

462
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: a pretty sweet salary for having no experience. The company's

463
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,879
Speaker 1: founder said that Stephen was quote a likable guy, engaging

464
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 1: and easier to work with than most chief financial officers,

465
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: the guys, the world's best actor, he said, all the

466
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 1: right things. Even though Stephen had no experience in this

467
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: field and he wasn't much of an accountant. He poked

468
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,240
Speaker 1: around in the books a little. I guess he felt like, well,

469
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: that you know, paying me to be at CFO, I

470
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: guess I may as well pretend. So he pokes around

471
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: the books a little, and he found out that NAM

472
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 1: was cheating itself out of money. Oh it's the weird

473
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: thing to hear about medical management, right, you left something

474
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: on the table. Each month, NAM accumulated hundreds of thousands

475
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: of dollars from clients, which they held in accounts, but

476
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:16,719
Speaker 1: those accounts bore no interests. So Steven saw that and

477
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: he's like, hmmm, let me just casually start shifting that

478
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: money into interest bearing accounts. That simple trick, within five

479
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 1: months had generated almost two million dollars in revenue for

480
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 1: the company. Oh my god, that tiny trick. So anyway,

481
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 1: put your ship in a high interest savings account. People.

482
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 1: So yeah, this like a brilliant move, Like this is

483
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: the smartest thing ever, he should just be like, you

484
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 1: know what, I guess I will be a CFO for

485
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. I will pull down this

486
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,080
Speaker 1: dope salary. I lied my way into this job, but

487
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: might as well legitimately keep it because I'm good at Yeah,

488
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: it turns out I'm great at it makes sense. But no,

489
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: not so much. He couldn't leave well enough alone. Obviously

490
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: it's Steven Russell. Yeah, so he decided that since he

491
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: made such a clever decision, right, he deserved a little commission. Okay,

492
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: that seems fair, specifically half of whatever fifty percent commission.

493
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: So in less than half a year, he skimmed eight

494
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:27,479
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars from them to like various personal accounts. Okay,

495
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: but he also made them eight hundred thousand dollars true,

496
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: So to me, I'm like, well, that's that's your fault. Now,

497
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: come on, I'd be like, all right, you know what,

498
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 1: maybe he lied, but give me one more good idea

499
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:45,480
Speaker 1: and you could stay. One for you, one for me

500
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: too for you, one too for me, classic bugs bunny trick.

501
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: Perfect now. Stephen himself suggested later that this wasn't just

502
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: impulsive theft, right, It wasn't just like, oh money, I'll

503
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 1: take it. He says that when Jim he was sick

504
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: and dying from AIDS, the HMS put them through absolute hell,

505
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: which is believable for anyone who's ever lived in America. Well,

506
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: and I'm sure a lot of people who did have

507
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: to live through the AIDS basis are very familiar with

508
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: this song and dance because I'm sure they were total

509
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 1: dicks about it being a gay virus or whatever. They

510
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: wouldn't cover the cost of treatments, and it was just

511
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: constant money troubles for them. And when he was at NAM,

512
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 1: he said, I watched executives badger their medical directors to

513
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: put pressure on network physicians to get patients out of

514
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: the hospital as soon as possible because otherwise it would

515
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 1: affect their bonus. And that he said when he heard

516
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:48,520
Speaker 1: that ship, he got really fired up and vengeful. It

517
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 1: just reminded him of that hell that he went through,

518
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: and he was like, that's it. I have the ability

519
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: now I'm going to make someone pay. Specifically, I'm gonna

520
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: make someone pay me, I know, but as long as

521
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 1: they're paying, that's what I want. Here. It's just funny

522
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: that he's like, no, no, no, no, I had a

523
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: bigger purpose. But it wasn't really a bigger purpose. It

524
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: was just a justification for doing what he was going

525
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: to do. Anyway, I'm like a version of Robin Hood.

526
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: I robbed from the rich and I give to the me.

527
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's funny that he's like, I'm going to

528
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 1: stick it to him. But then he made them more money,

529
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: even that he stole some of it, but he left

530
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: some of it, and he also gave him that trick,

531
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: so they've probably been making money off that trick everything.

532
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: Like all this time, Philip was completely oblivious to what

533
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: they were doing. According to Philip, right of course, he

534
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 1: insists to this day he had no idea Stephen was

535
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: embezzling money. To Philip, he just landed the perfect man,

536
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: this man who cared about and for him, and he

537
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,600
Speaker 1: handled all their financial interests. Stephen bought them like a

538
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: huge house with a pool and fancy cars and jet skis,

539
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: and they went to expend to restaurants all the time.

540
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: And Philip says it just all fit. He said, hindsight

541
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 1: is I had no mind for finance. Steve would call

542
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: me up in the middle of an afternoon and say,

543
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: how do you get dressed and meet me at the

544
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 1: Moose Cafe at six o'clock. We're going to celebrate. I

545
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 1: made nine thousand dollars today and I didn't think what

546
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: illegal activity did you do? Which I guess is fair,

547
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: but I'm my first. Philip had just been lonely and

548
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: miserable for so long, and he really thought that he

549
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 1: had finally found happiness and safety. Sure, sure, I do

550
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: want to pull into speculation station though, because I mean

551
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 1: I pretty much believe Philip in these interviews where he says, like,

552
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't really know, But I also think

553
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 1: that he he probably kind of chose not to know,

554
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: you know, like like you can sort of choose ignorance

555
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: without knowing what you're choosing in a way, if that

556
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:01,320
Speaker 1: makes sense, Like you can say I'm just not going

557
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: to ask any questions and not even that, but just

558
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: like very quickly convince yourself that this is normal. And

559
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 1: to me, it seems like maybe something like that is

560
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 1: going on, where he's like, oh, you made in a day.

561
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,719
Speaker 1: That doesn't seem right. But if I poke at this,

562
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 1: it might go away. So why would I poke? Yeah? Sure,

563
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 1: he would tell me if something bad was happening, you know,

564
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 1: and then you just very quickly convince yourself that you're

565
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: not involved, you know, and you're not really, but you

566
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: probably could have been. Yeah, that's I think. I think

567
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I feel like that's just a

568
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 1: very human thing should be. Like everything's great. I know

569
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,200
Speaker 1: something bad is going on, like somewhere vaguely in my periphery,

570
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: but I just won't look at it. If I don't

571
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 1: look at it, it won't happen and it's not real.

572
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: And if as it edges its way into my vision,

573
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 1: I'll just turn my head, you know what I mean. Like,

574
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 1: that's that's what I think about this, Like he's he

575
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 1: probably did have an inkling that there wasn't this was

576
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: not legit, and then shut it down. But was just like,

577
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: I'm not I'll trust him and he'll get me out

578
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,120
Speaker 1: of whatever mess he's getting me into. I would, I

579
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,440
Speaker 1: would guess I'm certainly not anything close to a psychologist,

580
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 1: but we're in speculation station. I could say whatever I want,

581
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 1: um that that's that might be true of a lot

582
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 1: of spouses of criminals, you know who sort of when

583
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 1: you look back at it and you're like you totally

584
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:31,919
Speaker 1: should have known that there's thirty bodies in your basement, right,

585
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,440
Speaker 1: but um, but they're like, I really just had no idea.

586
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:38,839
Speaker 1: And because they don't even realize that, they shut that

587
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 1: part of their brain down. Yeah, it makes me like

588
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: a Debbie. I wonder if she did something similar with

589
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: you know, she's kind of like, I know something's happening,

590
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:48,360
Speaker 1: but I'm just not going to ask for a while,

591
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,880
Speaker 1: until it was finally like, okay, man, what's going on?

592
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 1: Like yeah, how often do we do that every day?

593
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:56,360
Speaker 1: Or like if I don't ask, it's not real. How

594
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:58,800
Speaker 1: many people you know don't go to the doctor because

595
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: it's like, well, if I go to the doc, or

596
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 1: then I got a diagnosis, and then it's real. You

597
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 1: know how many people you know I don't. I don't

598
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 1: look at the nutrition facts on the cereal box because

599
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:16,320
Speaker 1: then I know what I'm eating and it's terrible, A

600
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:21,320
Speaker 1: very human thing, for sure, I think. Yeah. But of course,

601
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand dollars in just a few months doesn't

602
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:32,000
Speaker 1: go missing without somebody noticing. And soon Stephen realized that

603
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 1: they were onto him and it was time to disappear.

604
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: So he went to every bank that he could find,

605
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:40,799
Speaker 1: and he went to the A T M and just

606
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: took as much cash out as he could from each one,

607
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:47,800
Speaker 1: and he just stuffed suitcases full of cash. Philip was

608
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: hanging out at his sister's house and Steven shows up

609
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 1: all frantic and harryed, and he shoves an open briefcase

610
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,120
Speaker 1: full of cash in Philip's hands and says, here, baby,

611
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: this is yours. In Philip's own recollection of the story,

612
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: he told Stephen, you and that thing blanking blank? Oh

613
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: what a ship fit from Philip? That is? You know

614
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,640
Speaker 1: you're on Philip's bad side. If he called you an

615
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: mffing blank blank. I'm like, if he said m fffing,

616
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,839
Speaker 1: then what is blanking blank? Stand? Because I would think

617
00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: it was fucking fuck or writer fffing s head or

618
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:28,319
Speaker 1: something f m fingffing f That's what I would say.

619
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 1: I know, it rolls off the tongue better than a

620
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: blanking blank. But Philip was so mad he kicked the

621
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: briefcase and it flew up in the air and bundles

622
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 1: of money just reined around the house. I mean, I

623
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: bet he went was so mad to not pick up Yeah,

624
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,480
Speaker 1: He's like, how dare you? As he's picking up like

625
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 1: stacks of cash. I can't believe you did this, stuffing

626
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:53,400
Speaker 1: it in his shirt. Well, soon after, Stephen was arrested,

627
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,320
Speaker 1: and so was Philip. Turns out, Stephen had been writing

628
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 1: checks in six different variations of Philip's name. He had

629
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: also like opened some of those accounts under like a

630
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,040
Speaker 1: fake social Security number of Philip's name and all this stuff,

631
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 1: so it made him totally look like an accomplice, which

632
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: if Philip truly didn't know, even if he knew but

633
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,880
Speaker 1: wasn't asking, he didn't know that Stephen was using his

634
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,400
Speaker 1: name like that, and that's an extra level of suck up.

635
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:24,439
Speaker 1: Very that's not cool. Yeah, I just brought you into

636
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 1: this without your consent kind of. So as he's being arrested,

637
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: Stephen told the officers that he was diabetic and he

638
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:35,800
Speaker 1: desperately needed his insulin, which of course is Philip's insulin.

639
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: Stephen is not diabetic, so they brought him the whole kit,

640
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 1: and in the back of the police car, Stephen gave

641
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 1: himself forty injections of insulin. Oh my god, yikes, horrific.

642
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:50,440
Speaker 1: First of all, too many needles. Second of all, way

643
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,480
Speaker 1: too much insulin, right, and he now says that that

644
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:58,440
Speaker 1: was a failed suicide attempt um, but Philip said that

645
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 1: it was just all a part of Even's planned because

646
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:03,759
Speaker 1: he knows it's easier to escape from a hospital than

647
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:06,520
Speaker 1: it is to escape from a jail cell or anywhere

648
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 1: in the custody of law enforcement. So he's just like,

649
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:10,359
Speaker 1: give me to the hospital and I can get out

650
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:15,360
Speaker 1: from there. I kind of wonder speculation station if um,

651
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't just like an either or thing, like

652
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 1: if he was if it was a suicide's attempt. He

653
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 1: was like, well, if it kills me, great, If it doesn't,

654
00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 1: I'll be in a hospital and I can escape more

655
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 1: easily from there maybe, or vice versa, like, hopefully this

656
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: sends me to the hospital and I can escape. But

657
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 1: if it kills me, well, and it kills me, I'm

658
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,239
Speaker 1: fucked either way. Maybe you can see that. I can

659
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 1: see that. And then, even though this sent him into

660
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 1: an insulin shock in the booking room, which must have

661
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,880
Speaker 1: been horrifying, it didn't work to get him out of jail.

662
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:49,800
Speaker 1: Philip was released on a forty bond, but knowing Stephen

663
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 1: all too well at this point, Texas set his bail

664
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 1: at nine hundred thousand dollars. There you go. That was

665
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:00,839
Speaker 1: like deliberately to keep him from being able to pay.

666
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 1: They wanted him in jail from his arrest all the

667
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:05,200
Speaker 1: way to his trial date. They were not trying to

668
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 1: let him out. So you know, it looked like maybe

669
00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 1: this was the end for old Stephen. That kind of

670
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:14,359
Speaker 1: money was going to keep behind bars. Like we said,

671
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: right up to the trial, there was no way out

672
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: at this point. Right, come on, you know, Stephen, this

673
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:25,760
Speaker 1: was not going to keep him. Of course, it wasn't

674
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 1: early inconvenient. He knew exactly what to do, and we're

675
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,319
Speaker 1: going to tell you about it right after this commercial break.

676
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the thrilling conclusion of Steven Russell and

677
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: Philip Morris's story. Yea, some massive bond wasn't going to

678
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:54,240
Speaker 1: keep Stephen down, pH poshsh So bond orders are typed

679
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: up by lawyers and the judge just has to sign it.

680
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,160
Speaker 1: And Stephen knew that. So he called up a end

681
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:02,799
Speaker 1: in Florida and he told him how to type one out,

682
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 1: and he had it mailed to him in the prison,

683
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: and then he hid the type letter under his armpit

684
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,920
Speaker 1: and at a later hearing, as he was being walked

685
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: from the prison to the courthouse, chained to other prisoners,

686
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:20,320
Speaker 1: he passed by a woman carrying a large stack of paperwork.

687
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 1: So this was the moment he dropped the letter as

688
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 1: he passed her. Sure enough, somebody picked up the paper

689
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:28,840
Speaker 1: and then went, oh, you dropped this or whatever and

690
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 1: made its way to the deputy and eventually to the

691
00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:35,720
Speaker 1: file folder in the courtroom. Incredible. That night, he called

692
00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:37,880
Speaker 1: his Florida friend back and asked him to make a

693
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:39,880
Speaker 1: three way call so that he could get through to

694
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 1: the night clerk at the magistrate's court. Stephen on the

695
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,440
Speaker 1: phone pretended to be a judge and he was like, oh, hello,

696
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 1: this is Judge roder Gaster. I had a bond hearing

697
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 1: for Stephen Russell today. If you haven't heard of him,

698
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:03,720
Speaker 1: just my monocle here. Yes, I filed the hard copy,

699
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 1: but the clerk in the courtroom didn't enter it into

700
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: the computer. So my good friend, respect my authoritative accent.

701
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:22,239
Speaker 1: This is Texas Bros. Would you please handle that for me? Well,

702
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 1: I'll right, but you sound like a Maddie weird one. Yes,

703
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:30,720
Speaker 1: Oh you know us judges. It's it's all that fancy

704
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,839
Speaker 1: intrimication we get all right, I know that intumication does

705
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:40,280
Speaker 1: that to you. So sure enough, the night clerk files

706
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: the paperwork, and within hours of that phone call, Steven's

707
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 1: bond was reduced from nine hundred thousand dollars to forty dollars,

708
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 1: which was of course a pittance compared to what he

709
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:58,840
Speaker 1: had And at eight pm on guess when Friday July,

710
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:05,000
Speaker 1: a bail bondsman came to the county jail and Stephen

711
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 1: walked right out once again. This guy, he just walks

712
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: out the front door. That's how he does it. So

713
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 1: Steven's out. He went back to their house. He hopped

714
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 1: the wall and starts banging on the door until Philip

715
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 1: came around to open it, and Philip, of course is

716
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 1: amazed and shocked to see him. They took a swim

717
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:28,600
Speaker 1: in the pool and then Stephen told him once again,

718
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:31,960
Speaker 1: we have to leave right now, and he explained to

719
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 1: Philip how he got out, but he added that there

720
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:38,799
Speaker 1: was a warrant out for Philip's arrest too. Stephen used

721
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 1: a phony answering service to convince Philip that his bond

722
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:44,880
Speaker 1: had been provoked and that he was going to be arrested.

723
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: That's so fucked up. Because Philip had paid his bail,

724
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 1: he was just out on bond, was adding for his

725
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 1: child date. He was good to go. Yes, he would

726
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:55,520
Speaker 1: have been fine if he had just sat there quietly.

727
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,640
Speaker 1: But he believed Stephen, he later said, being the gullible

728
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:02,879
Speaker 1: fool that I am. I got scared and we ran

729
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 1: big mistake and they fled from Houston for Florida. But

730
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:11,399
Speaker 1: with Steven's face being all over the papers there were,

731
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:13,440
Speaker 1: they were only there for about a week before Stephen

732
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 1: was arrested again and flown back to Houston. And Philip

733
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 1: was not caught at this time, but he but he

734
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 1: was on the run. He didn't tend to be yeah,

735
00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:26,440
Speaker 1: exactly crazy, and twenty police officers were waiting when the

736
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: plane landed. Stephen pled guilty and he was sentenced to

737
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,640
Speaker 1: forty five years in prison. Now, the one thing I

738
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:37,040
Speaker 1: think is interesting now we've seen twice that if Stephen

739
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:40,319
Speaker 1: hadn't gone back for Philip, he probably would have been

740
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:43,560
Speaker 1: in the clear. Yeah, if he had just run somewhere else,

741
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:45,359
Speaker 1: he would have been a lot harder to find. So

742
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,520
Speaker 1: I think it really shows like that there is kind

743
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 1: of a deep love story here absolutely, you know, I

744
00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: mean there's no question that these two recklessly cared about

745
00:43:56,080 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 1: each other. Right. Um, it's obviously not a healthy relationship.

746
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:08,320
Speaker 1: But but even even Stephen, um, you know, I couldn't

747
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 1: stay away. He just he need a Philip. And whether

748
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 1: he needed him because he was a mark, you know,

749
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 1: because he was someone who was gullible, you know that

750
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:19,839
Speaker 1: that might be an element. I think he really did

751
00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:22,640
Speaker 1: love him, But I think he also knew like, I

752
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 1: got to hang onto this one because I can do

753
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,480
Speaker 1: my thing and he's not going to stop me. I

754
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:30,640
Speaker 1: think he loved him too. It must be said. The

755
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,399
Speaker 1: first time he escaped was for Jimmy, So it's it's

756
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 1: always been for love that he's escaped from jail, at

757
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 1: least for him in his mind. I just wonder if

758
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: there wasn't already a relationship, if he would have found

759
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:47,439
Speaker 1: another reason to do it. The man did not like jail, Yeah,

760
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 1: who does you know? Who can blame him? But uh,

761
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: but I was going to say, like he seems to

762
00:44:54,680 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 1: kind of need someone to need him then, do you

763
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 1: know what I mean? And I wonder if that has

764
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 1: to do with kind of his family situation. I think

765
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:07,279
Speaker 1: if you're a person who's been abandoned a lot or

766
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 1: rejected a lot. You get need and want really wrapped

767
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 1: up each other, really like, if you're really dependent on me,

768
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:18,320
Speaker 1: you can't leave you. And so I think that probably

769
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:20,760
Speaker 1: with Philip, he's like, oh, here's a guy who really

770
00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 1: needs me. He's someone who wants to lean on someone else,

771
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,439
Speaker 1: perfect for me. And then of course they also had

772
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:31,000
Speaker 1: clearly some real chemistry and real ship in common and

773
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:32,799
Speaker 1: stuff too. I don't want to take away from that,

774
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:35,759
Speaker 1: but I think that that was very attractive to a

775
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:40,840
Speaker 1: personality like Stevens. Well at this point seemed irrelevant because

776
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: in a forty five years sentence in prison, it finally

777
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,560
Speaker 1: seemed to catch up to Stephen. He was locked up

778
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:51,600
Speaker 1: for a long, long time years. That was going to

779
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 1: be it, you know, that's not, of course not. Stephen

780
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:03,719
Speaker 1: started taking art classes while in prison. This is how

781
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,240
Speaker 1: you expect every exciting story to begin, right jail break. Well,

782
00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 1: first there was an art class. But this is this

783
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:14,880
Speaker 1: is how Steven's brain worked. With each art session he attended,

784
00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:18,719
Speaker 1: he snatched up a green magic marker like a green sharpie,

785
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 1: and he hit it under his bed. Meanwhile, he was

786
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: closely observing the woman who guarded the entrance to the

787
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 1: unit where the inmates ate breakfast. She was always just

788
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:34,440
Speaker 1: yacking away on the phone, only half paying attention. So

789
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 1: he's keeping a close side. If I've seen this movie,

790
00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:41,880
Speaker 1: I've seen this movie. See ladies on the phone. Oh yeah,

791
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:46,800
Speaker 1: she's got the CADI glasses. Be hive, what do you want?

792
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:53,840
Speaker 1: So I says to Jane. I says, oh my god,

793
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,880
Speaker 1: you know that man's cheating on you. She needs to

794
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: leave him right now. I know from Jersey, we've got

795
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,680
Speaker 1: a Jersey lady in the jail. And then I would

796
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:09,879
Speaker 1: British magistrate, what is going on in Texas? So he's

797
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 1: watching this lady. He's stealing markers and on laundry rounds

798
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 1: he managed to smuggle himself an extra prison uniform and

799
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:21,200
Speaker 1: these were basically like white two piece uniforms, is just

800
00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 1: like scrubs almost just like a white plain shirt with

801
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:28,759
Speaker 1: a V neck collar and white linen pants. And on

802
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:33,680
Speaker 1: Wednesday December, he plugged up his cell toilet, he filled

803
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,759
Speaker 1: it with water and he dropped the cartridges of the

804
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 1: marker ink into the water, creating a die. He soaked

805
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:45,200
Speaker 1: the extra white uniform in the solution, and then all

806
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 1: the next day he was like very carefully shaking it

807
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 1: and blowing it meticulously so that it would try, and

808
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:57,760
Speaker 1: once it did, it looked almost identical to the green

809
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 1: scrubs worn by visiting doctors. And on Friday December, he

810
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 1: slipped in the bathroom during breakfast, put the green uniform on,

811
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:12,960
Speaker 1: and he walked right up to the guard on the phone,

812
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:16,319
Speaker 1: waved to her, knocked on the glass. She opened the

813
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:20,880
Speaker 1: gate for him, and he just kept walking right across

814
00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 1: the courtyard and straight out the front entrance. A guard

815
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:28,479
Speaker 1: tower even called to him, now, I'm doc, those sure

816
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 1: do look like prison digs, to which Stephen laughed and said, well,

817
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 1: don't shoot. And he walked right out of the prison

818
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: once again. He was only there of his forty five

819
00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:46,560
Speaker 1: year sentence for three months. Like as soon as he

820
00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:50,319
Speaker 1: went in, he's like, what am I doing? He took

821
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 1: his time and he planned and he did it. And

822
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: he says once there's a quote from him where he's

823
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 1: talking about why he got out of prison the way

824
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: he did. He says, in Texas, you are authorized to

825
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,400
Speaker 1: stop a prison break with lethal force. So he's like,

826
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:10,520
Speaker 1: you could not do it violently. It wasn't safe. The

827
00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 1: only way to do it was to walk out, and

828
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:19,040
Speaker 1: he managed to do that now multiple times. That's amazing.

829
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: Once again, Stephen probably could have disappeared, gone somewhere and

830
00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 1: they could have lost track of him, but he went

831
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,799
Speaker 1: back to his love. Philip was hiding out with a

832
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,160
Speaker 1: friend in Galveston, Texas, when Steven tracked him down and

833
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:37,960
Speaker 1: they told him he'd made parole, but he would run

834
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:43,320
Speaker 1: away with him out of Texas. Made parole again. Philip,

835
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:48,960
Speaker 1: come on, come on, buddy, like, just give it out,

836
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: you think Steve for a minute, but he did not

837
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:56,160
Speaker 1: give it a thing for a minute. He went ahead

838
00:49:56,200 --> 00:49:59,560
Speaker 1: and accepted and said let's go together, and they fled

839
00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: to Mississippi and they had a great old time at

840
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:07,919
Speaker 1: the Grand Casino Hotel. But Philip was getting a little

841
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:09,919
Speaker 1: fed up at this point. Again he's on the run

842
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:12,640
Speaker 1: for something he'd never even did in the first place,

843
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 1: that he didn't even know he was in trouble for that.

844
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,400
Speaker 1: He faked about him being in trouble again when he

845
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:20,359
Speaker 1: was waiting for his bond. I mean, and he's always here,

846
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:22,759
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be okay. I've got this handle. You know,

847
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:25,040
Speaker 1: you're in and out of jail man. I never know

848
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:27,840
Speaker 1: what's going on with you, So yeah, it makes sense.

849
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:31,080
Speaker 1: They finally everything came to a head for him and

850
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:34,080
Speaker 1: they broke out into a huge fight. So he blew

851
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: up at Stephen and he like flipped a table over

852
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:40,440
Speaker 1: and he shoved Stephen into a window of Florida ceiling

853
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:46,280
Speaker 1: glass in their high level hotel, and the glass bode

854
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:49,839
Speaker 1: but it did not break. And Philip said, if that

855
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:52,440
Speaker 1: thing had given away, I'd be sitting on death row

856
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 1: right now. But that kind of tells me if Maddie

857
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:58,120
Speaker 1: was because he was he was just I mean, this

858
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,680
Speaker 1: is a five to little like sweet gentle baby that

859
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:05,680
Speaker 1: got so mad that he was willing to almost kill someone. Well,

860
00:51:05,719 --> 00:51:09,560
Speaker 1: and you look at I think people like to like

861
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:12,719
Speaker 1: quiet people who are like, don't want a lot of conflict,

862
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:15,200
Speaker 1: Like it's not you know, you might blow up and

863
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:17,040
Speaker 1: when you do, it's all going to come out at once.

864
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:19,319
Speaker 1: That that's the kind of the impression I get from

865
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 1: Philip is he's like the kind of guy who's like,

866
00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:24,239
Speaker 1: I don't want any trouble. Yes, everything's fine. I'm a

867
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:26,120
Speaker 1: little upset, but I'll deal with it. Let me just

868
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:28,120
Speaker 1: bottle it up. Bottle it up, bottle it up, tamp

869
00:51:28,200 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 1: it down, Tampa huh. And then the cork pops and

870
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:33,479
Speaker 1: he almost threw someone out a window who's a foot

871
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: taller than him, you know, right, very crazy. And then

872
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:42,240
Speaker 1: after a call on a tapped phone line, both Stephen

873
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,640
Speaker 1: and Philip were picked up again by the authorities just

874
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,919
Speaker 1: about a quarter mile from their hotel, and it would

875
00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:50,880
Speaker 1: be the last time that they saw each other for

876
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:56,800
Speaker 1: seven months. They both faced hefty prison sentences, especially Stephen obviously,

877
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:02,120
Speaker 1: who had completely embarrassed the entire state of Texas multiple times.

878
00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 1: And this time it was for the last time. But

879
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:10,960
Speaker 1: of course it wasn't for the last time. Of course

880
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:15,920
Speaker 1: it wasn't. He already had things in the works. By

881
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:18,520
Speaker 1: the time he was in a squad car, Stephen was

882
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:24,480
Speaker 1: concocting his most elaborate escape plan yet, this one almost

883
00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 1: a combination of all his previous plans in a lot

884
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:30,680
Speaker 1: of ways. This was like his his the grand opus

885
00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:34,359
Speaker 1: of prison escapes, the finest word, most of piece. This

886
00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:37,880
Speaker 1: is what they'll remember me for if I'm going out

887
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,560
Speaker 1: with a bank of going out big. So, while he

888
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 1: awaited trial for his escape, he got into this really

889
00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:49,120
Speaker 1: crazy plan. He started abusing laxatives, this is weirder than

890
00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:54,040
Speaker 1: art school, right, like where is this going away? But

891
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: suddenly shipping a lot. He started dropping weight very quickly

892
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:03,760
Speaker 1: and the prison typewriter. He falsified his own medical records

893
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:07,960
Speaker 1: once again. When he was sentenced to an additional forty

894
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 1: five years on top of the forty five years he

895
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 1: already had to serve, he's solemnly accepted. He very quietly said, okay,

896
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 1: that's if that's how it is, then that's how it is.

897
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:22,520
Speaker 1: And they were like, they were like, hey, you don't

898
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 1: seem like a usual chip or self. You know, usually

899
00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:27,080
Speaker 1: when we sit and see to forty five years in jail,

900
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:30,279
Speaker 1: you're all happy and funny about it. What do you

901
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 1: got to say for yourself? And he said, well, you see,

902
00:53:35,760 --> 00:53:41,800
Speaker 1: I just learned that I'm HIV positive. Stephen slippery little

903
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:47,600
Speaker 1: rat even once again he was so dedicated to this

904
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:52,920
Speaker 1: con he starved himself, He threw up his meals, he

905
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:56,800
Speaker 1: did not sleep, and again he's abusing laxatives as well,

906
00:53:56,840 --> 00:54:01,799
Speaker 1: like he's just purging from every orifice scene until he

907
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:06,040
Speaker 1: got super emaciated. He looked terrible. At over six ft tall,

908
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:08,279
Speaker 1: he was only a hundred and fifty three pounds at

909
00:54:08,320 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 1: his trial. And so I mean, he's an openly gay

910
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:14,799
Speaker 1: man in the mid nineties with symptoms. He's got a

911
00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:18,120
Speaker 1: piece of paper saying he at HIV. So no one

912
00:54:18,239 --> 00:54:22,920
Speaker 1: bothered to test him, no one in anywhere, and the

913
00:54:23,040 --> 00:54:25,759
Speaker 1: bad line of people that could have done it and

914
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:30,160
Speaker 1: did I wonder speculation station once again. I wonder sometimes

915
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 1: if the era, the region, and what people thought of

916
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:38,840
Speaker 1: AIDS back then, maybe that really helped him get away

917
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,319
Speaker 1: with this because people are probably like, oh, he's got AIDS. Well,

918
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:43,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to deal with it. No, it's a

919
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 1: good point. I wondered that, Yeah, yeah, he's probably got AIGs.

920
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 1: There's nothing we can do. He's a gay guy. He

921
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:49,520
Speaker 1: says he's got AIDS, he's got AIGs. Sure that makes

922
00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:51,480
Speaker 1: sense to me, right, Why would he stay if we

923
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:54,560
Speaker 1: didn't have it? Yea. And plus they made me wonder

924
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:58,239
Speaker 1: about the compassionate release that Jimmy got when you know,

925
00:54:59,040 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 1: people weren't super clear on how it transmitted right away,

926
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:06,480
Speaker 1: you know, at first, so a lot of people were

927
00:55:06,600 --> 00:55:10,440
Speaker 1: very concerned about airborne transmission or you could touch someone's

928
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:13,479
Speaker 1: hand and get AIDS and stuff like. They really didn't

929
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:15,280
Speaker 1: have a knowledge of that, so I kind of wondered

930
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: if the prison was like, yeah, get him out of here,

931
00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:20,040
Speaker 1: because he might infect other people with AIDS just by

932
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:24,000
Speaker 1: being here. So I don't know that could still be

933
00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:28,359
Speaker 1: a thing I should say. He's like, thanks, bigotry here

934
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:32,640
Speaker 1: used that to my advantage once. For the next ten months,

935
00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 1: they just watched him as he withered away to skin

936
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:39,120
Speaker 1: and bones. He's showing all the signs of late stage

937
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: terminal AIDS. So eventually, as was standard procedure, they gave

938
00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:46,200
Speaker 1: him a transfer to a prison nursing home just south

939
00:55:46,239 --> 00:55:50,440
Speaker 1: of San Antonio, and shortly after that, prison officials got

940
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:58,640
Speaker 1: a phone call from a physician who was like, oh, hello,

941
00:55:59,160 --> 00:56:04,399
Speaker 1: this is still r. Reinald. I was just wondering if

942
00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:07,479
Speaker 1: you had any near death patients who would be willing

943
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:12,319
Speaker 1: to participate in experimental drug therapy for eight right right,

944
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:15,640
Speaker 1: if you do send them right away, I really need

945
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:17,719
Speaker 1: a lot of patients to test on, so I'm sure

946
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:20,640
Speaker 1: you have at least one one guy that fits the

947
00:56:20,680 --> 00:56:24,239
Speaker 1: bill in there. And they're like, well, funny enough, I

948
00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:28,200
Speaker 1: think I have exactly one guy who meets the exact

949
00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:31,759
Speaker 1: description you just gave me. Well, by jove, send him

950
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:38,560
Speaker 1: to my way by jove, British calls lately, Well, slap

951
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:41,879
Speaker 1: mattinee and call me grasshopper. You send him right this way, man,

952
00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 1: that's more like it goes. I'm less suspicious. So they

953
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:50,440
Speaker 1: put him in a taxi to send him off to

954
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:55,279
Speaker 1: this experimental treatment facility. Once again, Stephen walked right out

955
00:56:55,320 --> 00:57:00,719
Speaker 1: the front door. Oh my god, this guy just like

956
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 1: they put him in a taxi. That's very like, well,

957
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 1: you're about to die, so just you take yourself to

958
00:57:06,040 --> 00:57:11,160
Speaker 1: the experimental medical facility in May. And what day was it?

959
00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:19,160
Speaker 1: March a Friday, of course, Oh my god. Not only that,

960
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:22,439
Speaker 1: it was Philip Morris is thirty ninth birthday, thirty nine,

961
00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 1: and that's thirteen times three. I think about when he

962
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:28,400
Speaker 1: died the prison uniform and he's drying it the next

963
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:30,640
Speaker 1: day if he's like, you've got to fucking dry faster

964
00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:35,280
Speaker 1: because I'm gone on Saturday. And that's funny too, because

965
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:36,960
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of prison breaks are very

966
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:40,480
Speaker 1: much like the day is specific, because oh, there'll be

967
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,000
Speaker 1: less officials there that day, though someone will be over there.

968
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 1: There's the thing happening, and so they'll be distracted or whatever.

969
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:47,040
Speaker 1: And for him it's just like it's a Friday of

970
00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:48,960
Speaker 1: the thirteenth. I'm doing it then. I don't care what

971
00:57:48,960 --> 00:57:52,440
Speaker 1: the funk else is going on. If you're not ready,

972
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 1: I'll wait till the next Friday. Later that same physician

973
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: Dr Reinholdt. I wanted to say, Judge Reinold, but well,

974
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:10,200
Speaker 1: doctor instead called back to the prison to once again

975
00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:16,040
Speaker 1: inform him that well, sadly the treatment didn't work. My

976
00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:22,320
Speaker 1: opus was a failure. Oh, I'm so sorry, doctor, Stephen

977
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 1: Russell has passed away. I know you're very broken up

978
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:30,800
Speaker 1: about it. We are. He was our favorite escaping Well

979
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:34,400
Speaker 1: he's escaped life at this point. Wow, let me send

980
00:58:34,440 --> 00:58:37,400
Speaker 1: you a death certificate so you got something all record.

981
00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 1: I hope that your experimental treatment fares better in the

982
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:45,600
Speaker 1: future too. If you ever got any more patience over

983
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 1: there that I can I can experiment on you, send

984
00:58:48,560 --> 00:58:50,600
Speaker 1: them my way. They've got to be exactly six to

985
00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: and near death and I only take patience on Friday.

986
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 1: And it true. Stephen even sent death certificates to both

987
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:07,560
Speaker 1: the prison and the parole board so they could be like, wow,

988
00:59:08,040 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 1: I guess he's really dead. Meanwhile, Philip was still in

989
00:59:11,520 --> 00:59:15,840
Speaker 1: prison and Stephen was determined to get him out. He's like,

990
00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:19,200
Speaker 1: I'm not leaving my man in there. He said he

991
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:20,600
Speaker 1: would take care of him. I'm going to take care

992
00:59:20,640 --> 00:59:25,120
Speaker 1: of him. So he forged an attorney's bar card because

993
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:28,360
Speaker 1: of course, and he called the Estelle unit, which was

994
00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 1: the prison where Philip was staying, and he posed as

995
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:33,760
Speaker 1: a judge on the phone and he issued a bench

996
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:37,320
Speaker 1: warrant to have him moved from that prison outside Houston

997
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:41,840
Speaker 1: to a Dallas prison so that Stephen could go visit

998
00:59:41,960 --> 00:59:46,800
Speaker 1: him disguised as an attorney named Jean Louis, and that way,

999
00:59:46,880 --> 00:59:49,160
Speaker 1: you know, people wouldn't recognize him when he walked in.

1000
00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:52,480
Speaker 1: And he tried and tried. He saw Philip a few

1001
00:59:52,520 --> 00:59:55,560
Speaker 1: times and he tried to get him released, but he

1002
00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:58,120
Speaker 1: was not able to make it work and he needed

1003
00:59:58,120 --> 01:00:01,360
Speaker 1: to flee because they were starting to catch on. Authorities

1004
01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:06,800
Speaker 1: were definitely dubious of the death certificates. To be honest,

1005
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:11,400
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is getting embarrassing? All come on, guys,

1006
01:00:11,840 --> 01:00:15,560
Speaker 1: and they were like, you maybe this guy faked his death.

1007
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:19,760
Speaker 1: I imagine they're thinking, like, well, he was getting real

1008
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:21,680
Speaker 1: sick because saw him lose a lot of weight. He

1009
01:00:21,760 --> 01:00:24,440
Speaker 1: was throwing up he had all the signs, terminal aids,

1010
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:26,280
Speaker 1: and even a piece of paperwork and said he had

1011
01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:29,919
Speaker 1: eights So so he's got to be dead, right high.

1012
01:00:29,920 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 1: Sure if what if we do some police work on

1013
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:40,320
Speaker 1: this now, Carlton, Carlton, we don't do that kind of stuff. Here,

1014
01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:44,120
Speaker 1: I had one of them. It always hurts my head.

1015
01:00:44,440 --> 01:00:46,240
Speaker 1: But you know what, Carlton, you might be onto something.

1016
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:51,440
Speaker 1: Let's do some police work. And sure enough they actually

1017
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:54,400
Speaker 1: did their own investigating for once and found out that, yes,

1018
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 1: the death certificate had been forged. It was all fake.

1019
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:00,800
Speaker 1: But by the time US Marshall's as it did the prison,

1020
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:04,960
Speaker 1: Stephen was already gone. He had totally dropped off the radar.

1021
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:07,440
Speaker 1: But he's still trying to get Philip out of jail,

1022
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:11,880
Speaker 1: of course, and so in March an attorney offered to

1023
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 1: represent Philip for fifty thou dollars, but Steven's like, I

1024
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:17,160
Speaker 1: don't have that kind of money right now. I can't

1025
01:01:17,200 --> 01:01:21,720
Speaker 1: get that kind of money together very quickly. Um, so

1026
01:01:22,520 --> 01:01:24,280
Speaker 1: you know, I guess I should get a get a

1027
01:01:24,400 --> 01:01:26,480
Speaker 1: job and save up. Just kidding. He went to a

1028
01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:32,760
Speaker 1: nation's bank. He strolled into Nation's bank and posed as

1029
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:36,240
Speaker 1: a Virginia millionaire with the name of an old friend

1030
01:01:36,240 --> 01:01:40,440
Speaker 1: of his, art Sandler Arts. Sandler Art no relations to

1031
01:01:40,480 --> 01:01:44,880
Speaker 1: Adam Virginia millionaire Arts Sandler. Let's hear him. Okay, he

1032
01:01:44,920 --> 01:01:48,280
Speaker 1: applied for a loan, Okay, hello, mr bank of My

1033
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,479
Speaker 1: name is Arts Sandler, and I need a seventy five

1034
01:01:51,520 --> 01:01:55,200
Speaker 1: thousand dollar alone so that I can purchase me a

1035
01:01:55,280 --> 01:02:00,959
Speaker 1: nice barbecue restaurant. Oh yeah, a barbecue restaurant, of course. Yeah,

1036
01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:03,640
Speaker 1: it seems like a legitimate reason. I won't seventy five

1037
01:02:03,640 --> 01:02:06,920
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for a millionaire. Well, of course it is. No,

1038
01:02:07,120 --> 01:02:10,520
Speaker 1: you can't start a business with your own money. Whatever

1039
01:02:10,560 --> 01:02:15,800
Speaker 1: he needed for I wanted to buy a bunch of socks.

1040
01:02:15,880 --> 01:02:20,400
Speaker 1: You see, seven dollars worth of socks. I got these

1041
01:02:20,400 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 1: new bombs I want to try. Yeah. Stephen said that

1042
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:29,720
Speaker 1: he chose seventy five thousand dollars because fifty thousand was

1043
01:02:29,800 --> 01:02:34,000
Speaker 1: for this lawyer for Philip, and thousand was for quote

1044
01:02:34,120 --> 01:02:38,439
Speaker 1: sundry expenses. So I had to have something to live

1045
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:44,560
Speaker 1: on eight you know, but the bankers got pretty suspicious.

1046
01:02:44,640 --> 01:02:47,320
Speaker 1: Now Here again is where Steven is not given credit

1047
01:02:47,360 --> 01:02:50,600
Speaker 1: where it's due, Because, like the military, banks are very

1048
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:55,160
Speaker 1: suspicious you want money, And so they alerted the police

1049
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:57,280
Speaker 1: that something might be up. They're not sure about this

1050
01:02:57,400 --> 01:03:01,720
Speaker 1: art Sandler guy. And the police came in and Stephen

1051
01:03:01,800 --> 01:03:07,320
Speaker 1: was arrested and that was it. Seriously, this time, his

1052
01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:11,280
Speaker 1: biggest escape was over. It was time for jail. He

1053
01:03:11,320 --> 01:03:16,280
Speaker 1: had no more tricks, so he just had to surrender. No,

1054
01:03:17,040 --> 01:03:21,520
Speaker 1: he faked a heart attack, of course, and that got

1055
01:03:21,560 --> 01:03:26,320
Speaker 1: him transported to a hospital instead of jail. Always easier

1056
01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:28,400
Speaker 1: to escape from a hospital than a jail. And he

1057
01:03:28,520 --> 01:03:31,439
Speaker 1: was placed on security watch. Okay, okay, well that's that's

1058
01:03:31,440 --> 01:03:35,840
Speaker 1: got to be it then, right, Well, stupidly they had

1059
01:03:35,880 --> 01:03:38,480
Speaker 1: never taken his cell phone away from him. They put

1060
01:03:38,560 --> 01:03:42,400
Speaker 1: him into security watch at the hospital, so he simply

1061
01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:46,240
Speaker 1: picked up his cell phone called the hospital impersonating an

1062
01:03:46,280 --> 01:03:49,640
Speaker 1: FBI agent. He's literally like, hey there, this is dangerous

1063
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:53,600
Speaker 1: Johnson with the FBI. Yeah, you got Stephen Russell over

1064
01:03:53,600 --> 01:03:56,120
Speaker 1: there on a security watch. You can just cut him

1065
01:03:56,120 --> 01:03:58,680
Speaker 1: on loose. We're done with him. Just let him go,

1066
01:03:59,160 --> 01:04:02,560
Speaker 1: Just let him go. Oh they just did. And they

1067
01:04:02,680 --> 01:04:06,320
Speaker 1: just did. They were just like sure, if you say so, boss,

1068
01:04:06,640 --> 01:04:09,560
Speaker 1: I got a phone call says let him go. You

1069
01:04:09,600 --> 01:04:13,800
Speaker 1: guys go to facts, a piece of paper, anything, Well,

1070
01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:18,040
Speaker 1: who is the phone call from agent? Johnson? Checks out?

1071
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:24,280
Speaker 1: It's an agent. Johnson's a name. Don't sound made up

1072
01:04:24,280 --> 01:04:26,880
Speaker 1: to me, he says, his an agent is I'm not

1073
01:04:26,920 --> 01:04:29,040
Speaker 1: going to press that. Well, you can't just lie and

1074
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:32,280
Speaker 1: say you're an agent. What what kind of criminal would do?

1075
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:35,960
Speaker 1: That's a crime. You can't impersonate an agent. That's a crime.

1076
01:04:37,160 --> 01:04:41,640
Speaker 1: So it's got to be one. I mean you seriously,

1077
01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:44,840
Speaker 1: are you even Yeah, they're just all asleep at the wheel.

1078
01:04:45,320 --> 01:04:48,880
Speaker 1: Oh my god, but okay. A couple of weeks later,

1079
01:04:49,560 --> 01:04:53,000
Speaker 1: in early April, U S. Marshals did track him down

1080
01:04:53,040 --> 01:04:55,520
Speaker 1: in Florida. At this time, they were not going to

1081
01:04:55,640 --> 01:04:58,720
Speaker 1: let him slip away. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice

1082
01:04:58,760 --> 01:05:02,400
Speaker 1: even told the marshals quote, if he comes out of

1083
01:05:02,440 --> 01:05:06,640
Speaker 1: the apartment and says that he's President Bill Clinton and

1084
01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:12,880
Speaker 1: you believe that he's Bill Clinton, don't believe him, arrest him.

1085
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:17,240
Speaker 1: Oh my god, and I am. We're not gonna do

1086
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:20,080
Speaker 1: the gag anymore. It is played out. That really was

1087
01:05:20,200 --> 01:05:23,200
Speaker 1: it for real? This was his last arrest. They threw

1088
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:27,320
Speaker 1: every book they had at Stephen. He had embarrassed them

1089
01:05:27,480 --> 01:05:32,200
Speaker 1: over and over again and you know, Texas is very

1090
01:05:32,280 --> 01:05:37,000
Speaker 1: sensitive to being insulted, right. Also it's Governor George W. Bush.

1091
01:05:37,320 --> 01:05:40,880
Speaker 1: Oh boy, he hates being made a fool of fool

1092
01:05:40,920 --> 01:05:48,560
Speaker 1: me once foolmy, can't get fooled again. It's so ridiculous.

1093
01:05:48,880 --> 01:05:50,680
Speaker 1: I mean, at the time, it was the most embarrassing

1094
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:56,360
Speaker 1: president we'd had. Things would change, Uh, So that was it.

1095
01:05:56,480 --> 01:05:59,520
Speaker 1: They were so upset that they sentenced him to a

1096
01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:03,560
Speaker 1: hundred in forty four years in prison. That was forty

1097
01:06:03,600 --> 01:06:07,840
Speaker 1: five years for his scams and nine nine years for

1098
01:06:07,880 --> 01:06:13,560
Speaker 1: his multiple escapes. His current release date is July twelve, one,

1099
01:06:15,720 --> 01:06:19,360
Speaker 1: twenty one fort I mean, you know what, Texas, punish

1100
01:06:19,400 --> 01:06:25,720
Speaker 1: yourselves because how many times did your complete incompetence? And

1101
01:06:25,760 --> 01:06:28,919
Speaker 1: I get that you're embarrassed because he exposed that incompetence,

1102
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:33,840
Speaker 1: but any number of checkpoints, this should not have happened.

1103
01:06:34,320 --> 01:06:36,800
Speaker 1: This guy should have served out his sentence, maybe not

1104
01:06:36,880 --> 01:06:39,240
Speaker 1: made parole because he kept trying to escape and failing,

1105
01:06:39,760 --> 01:06:44,600
Speaker 1: But ridiculous how many times? How many times he just

1106
01:06:45,080 --> 01:06:47,800
Speaker 1: walked out? So why don't you lock yourselves up for

1107
01:06:47,840 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 1: being so bad what you do? And at this point,

1108
01:06:50,120 --> 01:06:52,440
Speaker 1: I mean, he's escaped so many times, you kind of

1109
01:06:52,440 --> 01:06:56,000
Speaker 1: want to get it. You got a punch card, your

1110
01:06:56,040 --> 01:07:04,560
Speaker 1: fifth escape and you're free. You got us, you win.

1111
01:07:05,960 --> 01:07:12,000
Speaker 1: We obviously can't keep you, slippery bastard. Philip was released

1112
01:07:12,040 --> 01:07:15,000
Speaker 1: on early parole. He moved back to Arkansas, where he

1113
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:17,800
Speaker 1: seems to still be living today. He has a small

1114
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:20,800
Speaker 1: apartment where he paints and draws, and a remote lake

1115
01:07:20,840 --> 01:07:24,520
Speaker 1: house where he lives far away from anyone, which I

1116
01:07:24,600 --> 01:07:27,160
Speaker 1: kind of get. That sounds nice, Yeah, it does you

1117
01:07:27,280 --> 01:07:30,080
Speaker 1: And McGregor plays him in the movie I Love You

1118
01:07:30,120 --> 01:07:33,680
Speaker 1: Philip morris Um, and so he came to spend a

1119
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:36,880
Speaker 1: few days with him to prep for the role. And

1120
01:07:37,240 --> 01:07:39,280
Speaker 1: you know, Philip was like, that's so flattering that he

1121
01:07:39,320 --> 01:07:42,360
Speaker 1: would come spend time with me, which please you? And

1122
01:07:42,440 --> 01:07:46,440
Speaker 1: McGregor comes spend time learned to play me like I

1123
01:07:46,440 --> 01:07:49,480
Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, speculation station here, But does

1124
01:07:49,520 --> 01:07:51,680
Speaker 1: that kind of almost make it worth it? You get

1125
01:07:51,680 --> 01:07:53,720
Speaker 1: to hang out with McGregor for a couple of days.

1126
01:07:53,800 --> 01:07:55,960
Speaker 1: And he played you in a movie, man, Come on,

1127
01:07:56,000 --> 01:08:00,160
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool to do. Apparently be lied to a lot,

1128
01:08:02,040 --> 01:08:05,240
Speaker 1: and Philip loves the movie I Love You Philip morris Um.

1129
01:08:05,760 --> 01:08:09,440
Speaker 1: He says he especially loves it mostly because it portrays

1130
01:08:09,520 --> 01:08:12,640
Speaker 1: him as the victim. He's you know, I've been kind

1131
01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:16,479
Speaker 1: of denying his involvement, so it's probably, yeah, pretty nice

1132
01:08:16,520 --> 01:08:18,679
Speaker 1: to have some validation on the big screen, to be like, see,

1133
01:08:18,720 --> 01:08:20,400
Speaker 1: I told you I didn't know anything about that, because

1134
01:08:20,439 --> 01:08:24,120
Speaker 1: he's definitely had his critics. Oh sure, and he says

1135
01:08:24,200 --> 01:08:28,000
Speaker 1: you and portrayal of him is spot on. He's like,

1136
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:30,080
Speaker 1: he got the way I talk, the way I walk,

1137
01:08:30,400 --> 01:08:33,240
Speaker 1: the way I cried. I cry a lot. He's like,

1138
01:08:33,400 --> 01:08:37,280
Speaker 1: I cry a lot. He did it right. And I

1139
01:08:37,320 --> 01:08:39,920
Speaker 1: think Stephen said the same thing about Jim Carey. Look

1140
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:41,800
Speaker 1: if you and McGregor played me in a movie, I

1141
01:08:41,800 --> 01:08:43,920
Speaker 1: don't care what he does. I'm going to be like, Yep,

1142
01:08:44,040 --> 01:08:46,640
Speaker 1: that's me. That's exactly who I am. I am you

1143
01:08:46,680 --> 01:08:49,479
Speaker 1: and McGregor, I'd be watching it going, how do how

1144
01:08:49,479 --> 01:08:51,559
Speaker 1: does he did that? How do you do that? So charmingly?

1145
01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:55,360
Speaker 1: I would also like to do that charmingly. You and McGregor,

1146
01:08:55,400 --> 01:08:57,840
Speaker 1: please play the better version of me so that I

1147
01:08:57,880 --> 01:09:00,719
Speaker 1: may imitate it. Yes, that I will be a better

1148
01:09:00,920 --> 01:09:05,360
Speaker 1: I'll be a lesser version of you and mcgragg. In

1149
01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:09,240
Speaker 1: an interview with Gina Piccolo and The Daily beast, Philip says,

1150
01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:12,680
Speaker 1: this sounds crazy. After all he's done to me as

1151
01:09:12,720 --> 01:09:14,880
Speaker 1: messed up as my life has been, and seven years

1152
01:09:14,880 --> 01:09:17,240
Speaker 1: in prison over something that I didn't do or even

1153
01:09:17,280 --> 01:09:20,679
Speaker 1: know about. I am so mad at him. I could

1154
01:09:20,720 --> 01:09:23,240
Speaker 1: just beat him to a pulse, beat him until he dies.

1155
01:09:24,040 --> 01:09:27,240
Speaker 1: But I love him. You explain that. Yeah, that love

1156
01:09:27,320 --> 01:09:31,840
Speaker 1: is weird, man, We love is very weird. If you

1157
01:09:31,880 --> 01:09:35,840
Speaker 1: haven't noticed from this show or your own life. Possibly right.

1158
01:09:36,680 --> 01:09:39,280
Speaker 1: When asked if Stephen were to ever get out, if

1159
01:09:39,280 --> 01:09:42,600
Speaker 1: Philip would see him again, he said, I don't anticipate

1160
01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:45,960
Speaker 1: him coming out anytime soon, but there are various reasons

1161
01:09:46,000 --> 01:09:47,680
Speaker 1: why I'd love to sit down face to face with

1162
01:09:47,760 --> 01:09:50,000
Speaker 1: him again. I'd like him to tell me he's truly

1163
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:52,880
Speaker 1: sorry and mean it, but we'd never be together again.

1164
01:09:53,000 --> 01:09:55,040
Speaker 1: I could never trust him. I wake up in the

1165
01:09:55,080 --> 01:09:57,479
Speaker 1: middle of the night sweating thinking I'm still in prison,

1166
01:09:58,000 --> 01:09:59,760
Speaker 1: and when I think of those things, it makes me

1167
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:04,920
Speaker 1: at Steve understandable. Yeah, I get that, he says. Steven

1168
01:10:04,960 --> 01:10:07,559
Speaker 1: Russell is the most charming man you'll ever meet in

1169
01:10:07,600 --> 01:10:10,439
Speaker 1: your life. He's not the most handsome man, but I

1170
01:10:10,439 --> 01:10:12,960
Speaker 1: don't care who you are. If Steven Russell wants to

1171
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:16,120
Speaker 1: attach himself to your life somehow, you will fall in

1172
01:10:16,120 --> 01:10:20,439
Speaker 1: love with him period, And that is just what makes

1173
01:10:20,479 --> 01:10:23,240
Speaker 1: a successful con man a successful man, you know. It's

1174
01:10:23,280 --> 01:10:26,760
Speaker 1: just that charm, that way to just get in your

1175
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:30,320
Speaker 1: head and make you just want to believe him in

1176
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:33,560
Speaker 1: all the ridiculous things he's telling. So you decide to

1177
01:10:33,560 --> 01:10:37,200
Speaker 1: sort of like Phillips whole situation, and also like he

1178
01:10:37,280 --> 01:10:39,559
Speaker 1: makes you kind of like he did it to me

1179
01:10:39,640 --> 01:10:42,760
Speaker 1: and this story, you know what I mean, Like, I'm like, man,

1180
01:10:42,880 --> 01:10:46,040
Speaker 1: he is just the goal on. This guy is so

1181
01:10:46,120 --> 01:10:49,760
Speaker 1: insane and I kind of want him to win anyway,

1182
01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:52,120
Speaker 1: even though I know he's not doing good things, he's

1183
01:10:52,160 --> 01:10:56,000
Speaker 1: not treating people right, Um, I'm still like, I still

1184
01:10:56,080 --> 01:10:57,960
Speaker 1: kind of want him to get away with it. Isn't

1185
01:10:58,000 --> 01:11:00,200
Speaker 1: that weird? We have a tendency, I think, to root

1186
01:11:00,280 --> 01:11:03,720
Speaker 1: for maybe because our prison system is so fucked up.

1187
01:11:04,360 --> 01:11:07,800
Speaker 1: And yeah, and we like audacity. We really love that

1188
01:11:07,840 --> 01:11:09,640
Speaker 1: in this country especially. I don't I don't know, I

1189
01:11:09,680 --> 01:11:11,800
Speaker 1: can't speak to other countries, but we love the more

1190
01:11:11,960 --> 01:11:15,080
Speaker 1: create Like, the more out there you are, it feels

1191
01:11:15,120 --> 01:11:18,680
Speaker 1: like the more we're like, all right, fine, let him

1192
01:11:18,720 --> 01:11:21,000
Speaker 1: have it. And he really went for it. So bold

1193
01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:24,000
Speaker 1: boldness takes the day, you know a lot of times.

1194
01:11:25,320 --> 01:11:28,640
Speaker 1: But it is true. That's I mean, Steven's not, you know,

1195
01:11:28,880 --> 01:11:31,840
Speaker 1: a great guy in this story. Even so, he did

1196
01:11:31,880 --> 01:11:36,720
Speaker 1: abuse Philip regularly, you know, mentally, emotionally flies. Yeah, lies.

1197
01:11:36,760 --> 01:11:38,240
Speaker 1: I don't think he ever hit him or anything like that.

1198
01:11:38,280 --> 01:11:40,160
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't want to throw that on him,

1199
01:11:40,160 --> 01:11:42,680
Speaker 1: but you know, he's kind of trapping him in a

1200
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:45,400
Speaker 1: little bit of a prison of his life. And he

1201
01:11:45,439 --> 01:11:48,800
Speaker 1: even tried to keep Philip in jail longer than him.

1202
01:11:48,840 --> 01:11:51,679
Speaker 1: At like some point in all of these prison escapes,

1203
01:11:52,400 --> 01:11:55,240
Speaker 1: Philip said, Stephen was scared that Philip would get out

1204
01:11:55,280 --> 01:11:57,720
Speaker 1: of jail before him, and that he'd go back to

1205
01:11:57,840 --> 01:12:01,960
Speaker 1: his ex if he did so. Before Philip was paroled,

1206
01:12:02,160 --> 01:12:05,320
Speaker 1: Steven posed as a d a and called the judge

1207
01:12:05,520 --> 01:12:08,960
Speaker 1: to make sure Philip stayed longer than him, like Philip

1208
01:12:09,000 --> 01:12:12,880
Speaker 1: would have gotten out that night, but he arranged it

1209
01:12:13,040 --> 01:12:15,080
Speaker 1: so that he could get out of jail first and

1210
01:12:15,160 --> 01:12:18,639
Speaker 1: have more control over his release where he went after

1211
01:12:18,720 --> 01:12:24,560
Speaker 1: he left brutal. Yeah, Jimmy his first boyfriend that we

1212
01:12:24,640 --> 01:12:28,200
Speaker 1: talked about. His mother even said I really liked Stephen

1213
01:12:28,240 --> 01:12:32,200
Speaker 1: at first, but he conned Jimmy, He lied like a rug,

1214
01:12:32,280 --> 01:12:34,840
Speaker 1: He told one lie after another, and he deserves to

1215
01:12:34,880 --> 01:12:38,080
Speaker 1: be where he is because he'll do it all again.

1216
01:12:38,400 --> 01:12:42,920
Speaker 1: He should be in prison forever. And obviously there's something

1217
01:12:42,960 --> 01:12:45,640
Speaker 1: to that. I mean, like we said, he caused a

1218
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:47,519
Speaker 1: lot of damage. Yeah, he stuck it to the man,

1219
01:12:47,600 --> 01:12:50,160
Speaker 1: and we love that. You know, he got his from

1220
01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:53,599
Speaker 1: from an insurance company like that. Whole industry is sucked up.

1221
01:12:54,040 --> 01:12:59,800
Speaker 1: And he's still manipulated people and abused people and dragged

1222
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:04,160
Speaker 1: Philip into this world that he had no part in.

1223
01:13:04,840 --> 01:13:07,200
Speaker 1: And we can't really know what his life would have been,

1224
01:13:07,200 --> 01:13:09,040
Speaker 1: but we can assume that he wouldn't have been thrown

1225
01:13:09,080 --> 01:13:11,519
Speaker 1: in jail for seven years like he was. So at

1226
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:15,000
Speaker 1: a certain point, Stephen is a bad guy, right, and

1227
01:13:15,080 --> 01:13:19,479
Speaker 1: if we need, however, we punish bad people as a

1228
01:13:19,520 --> 01:13:21,920
Speaker 1: means of a deterrent to stop people from being bad

1229
01:13:21,920 --> 01:13:26,160
Speaker 1: in the future. Obviously, our prison system is fucked because

1230
01:13:26,320 --> 01:13:31,479
Speaker 1: at now sixty four years old, Stephen is still in prison.

1231
01:13:32,120 --> 01:13:36,920
Speaker 1: Since his arrest in and his subsequent sentencing, Stephen has

1232
01:13:36,960 --> 01:13:43,800
Speaker 1: been in solitary confinement in one room for twenty three

1233
01:13:43,840 --> 01:13:47,320
Speaker 1: hours a day, with one hour a day to shower

1234
01:13:47,400 --> 01:13:51,000
Speaker 1: and exercise. In Steven's own words, he says, do I

1235
01:13:51,040 --> 01:13:54,439
Speaker 1: belong in prison? Yes? I do. I most definitely did

1236
01:13:54,439 --> 01:13:57,559
Speaker 1: not belong in solitary However, that is a cruel and

1237
01:13:57,640 --> 01:14:02,840
Speaker 1: unusual punishment, completely disproportioned it to my crimes. In his situation.

1238
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:06,519
Speaker 1: His spine has become so impacted over the years that

1239
01:14:06,600 --> 01:14:09,360
Speaker 1: now he's bound to a wheelchair whenever he leaves his cell.

1240
01:14:10,120 --> 01:14:13,240
Speaker 1: He says, it is the only legal form of torture

1241
01:14:13,439 --> 01:14:17,280
Speaker 1: in today's prison system, but it's a slow maltreatment of

1242
01:14:17,320 --> 01:14:19,760
Speaker 1: the body and mind that in the short run at

1243
01:14:19,840 --> 01:14:25,040
Speaker 1: least leaves no visible signs. That's why it's permitted. No,

1244
01:14:25,320 --> 01:14:29,320
Speaker 1: it's it's unconscionable that this guy has been in solitary

1245
01:14:29,320 --> 01:14:37,120
Speaker 1: confinement for over two decades now, every single day. He

1246
01:14:37,520 --> 01:14:42,040
Speaker 1: describes it pretty graphically in some of his interviews, where

1247
01:14:42,080 --> 01:14:45,400
Speaker 1: he's like, I mean, these visitations are taking place with

1248
01:14:45,520 --> 01:14:49,599
Speaker 1: thick plexiglass between him and whomever it is, and he

1249
01:14:49,640 --> 01:14:52,960
Speaker 1: doesn't touch anyone. He has not had a human contact

1250
01:14:53,479 --> 01:14:55,800
Speaker 1: except for when the guard takes his arm to take

1251
01:14:55,880 --> 01:14:59,080
Speaker 1: him out to his shower in that length of time.

1252
01:14:59,120 --> 01:15:04,200
Speaker 1: As well, talks about others in solitary with him who

1253
01:15:04,240 --> 01:15:08,439
Speaker 1: He's like, I've seen thirty suicides. They cut themselves, they

1254
01:15:08,439 --> 01:15:12,160
Speaker 1: go insane. I mean, solitary is a very real torture.

1255
01:15:12,520 --> 01:15:16,280
Speaker 1: It really is. It should is not humane treatment for

1256
01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:21,360
Speaker 1: any person, no matter what they did. To be perfectly honest,

1257
01:15:21,479 --> 01:15:24,320
Speaker 1: I know some very heinous crimes, and you get mad.

1258
01:15:24,640 --> 01:15:27,000
Speaker 1: I get mad. I'm like, I would trounce their face

1259
01:15:27,040 --> 01:15:29,800
Speaker 1: in right now and curb stomp them or something. In

1260
01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:32,120
Speaker 1: my brain, I'm getting really needed, you know what I mean.

1261
01:15:32,400 --> 01:15:35,400
Speaker 1: But wh when they're actually being in the custody of

1262
01:15:35,439 --> 01:15:38,800
Speaker 1: our state governments or our federal government, or a city

1263
01:15:38,800 --> 01:15:41,599
Speaker 1: government or whomever they're in custody, they should be treated

1264
01:15:41,640 --> 01:15:45,959
Speaker 1: a certain way, and that way should be pretty humane technically,

1265
01:15:45,960 --> 01:15:49,800
Speaker 1: according to our principles. It's it's not about rehabilitating you

1266
01:15:49,840 --> 01:15:54,240
Speaker 1: to be a better citizen, or equipping you with skills

1267
01:15:54,280 --> 01:15:57,599
Speaker 1: and behaviors or whatever to get you out there and

1268
01:15:57,880 --> 01:16:02,000
Speaker 1: be a normal person going around being productive. It's not

1269
01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:04,639
Speaker 1: about that. It never is. And then you can even

1270
01:16:04,640 --> 01:16:08,479
Speaker 1: see in this story, Stephen had behavioral issues as a kid.

1271
01:16:08,600 --> 01:16:10,960
Speaker 1: He got sent to a home where he met only

1272
01:16:11,040 --> 01:16:14,439
Speaker 1: more violent people who made him more violent. You know,

1273
01:16:14,439 --> 01:16:17,920
Speaker 1: what I mean, It didn't help him necessarily to go

1274
01:16:17,960 --> 01:16:20,680
Speaker 1: to that home. I don't think it changed much for him.

1275
01:16:21,000 --> 01:16:23,120
Speaker 1: And then every time we have a guy who had

1276
01:16:23,160 --> 01:16:26,800
Speaker 1: a rental car, he owed money, that's it. He owed

1277
01:16:26,840 --> 01:16:29,320
Speaker 1: money that he couldn't pay, and then they went back

1278
01:16:29,360 --> 01:16:31,120
Speaker 1: to jail. He went back to jail, you know what

1279
01:16:31,160 --> 01:16:32,840
Speaker 1: I mean, Like, you just can't get out of a

1280
01:16:32,880 --> 01:16:34,799
Speaker 1: psych once you're in, you can't get out of the cycle.

1281
01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:37,719
Speaker 1: And that's sort of the point. Well, that's Stephen says.

1282
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:40,439
Speaker 1: You know that society tends to look down on prisoners

1283
01:16:41,200 --> 01:16:44,680
Speaker 1: and that many people just feel like whatever they experience

1284
01:16:44,800 --> 01:16:48,320
Speaker 1: is what they deserve because they broke the law. He says,

1285
01:16:48,479 --> 01:16:51,960
Speaker 1: if we expect prison to rehabilitate offenders, or if we

1286
01:16:52,040 --> 01:16:55,920
Speaker 1: expect inmates to reintegrate into society once they've done their time,

1287
01:16:56,360 --> 01:17:00,280
Speaker 1: the less broken they are when they finally come out here.

1288
01:17:00,320 --> 01:17:05,799
Speaker 1: That will be Last December, Stephen was up for parole

1289
01:17:05,960 --> 01:17:08,720
Speaker 1: and was denied. According to the Texas d o J.

1290
01:17:09,840 --> 01:17:13,479
Speaker 1: He was to be reassessed actually this very month of October.

1291
01:17:14,960 --> 01:17:18,000
Speaker 1: So if we hear anything, we will definitely update shell

1292
01:17:18,080 --> 01:17:23,040
Speaker 1: in a later story. Um, but you know what, that's

1293
01:17:23,040 --> 01:17:26,920
Speaker 1: all very dour. Prison system is a dark conversation, and

1294
01:17:27,400 --> 01:17:31,639
Speaker 1: this one definitely sparks it because we're obviously left this

1295
01:17:31,720 --> 01:17:35,720
Speaker 1: moral conundrum of like, somebody's a bad person, somebody has

1296
01:17:35,960 --> 01:17:38,400
Speaker 1: broken the law, somebody has taken advantage of people, but

1297
01:17:39,280 --> 01:17:42,639
Speaker 1: maybe we shouldn't torture them all the time. A much

1298
01:17:42,720 --> 01:17:46,920
Speaker 1: lighter topic of conversation would be this delightful movie about this,

1299
01:17:47,439 --> 01:17:49,640
Speaker 1: which we did watch. We did watch last night, and

1300
01:17:50,000 --> 01:17:54,360
Speaker 1: UM really really loved Yeah, it was good. I saw

1301
01:17:54,479 --> 01:17:56,439
Speaker 1: some reviews that was like kind of messy or something,

1302
01:17:56,439 --> 01:18:00,280
Speaker 1: but I really liked it. I thought it was pretty tight. Honestly. Um,

1303
01:18:00,360 --> 01:18:05,599
Speaker 1: Jim Carrey is phenomenal because he does this thing where

1304
01:18:05,920 --> 01:18:10,160
Speaker 1: he really takes his time with it and sometimes doesn't

1305
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:13,120
Speaker 1: have the answer. You can see him scrambling for it

1306
01:18:13,160 --> 01:18:16,000
Speaker 1: in his mind, but not in a way that makes

1307
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:20,080
Speaker 1: it seem like these people are idiots for falling for it. Um.

1308
01:18:20,120 --> 01:18:24,080
Speaker 1: It's just a really delicate portrayal of a very realistic

1309
01:18:24,080 --> 01:18:27,960
Speaker 1: portrayal of a very good liar. He's not so good

1310
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:30,439
Speaker 1: that you're like this is scripted. No one would be

1311
01:18:30,479 --> 01:18:35,160
Speaker 1: that quick on their feet. It's very steady, unbelievable. I

1312
01:18:35,479 --> 01:18:38,719
Speaker 1: thought he was great. Yeah, and they had great chemistry too.

1313
01:18:38,840 --> 01:18:41,920
Speaker 1: I thought you were so like, such a cute They

1314
01:18:41,960 --> 01:18:45,320
Speaker 1: were so adorable together, and they like legit would like

1315
01:18:45,439 --> 01:18:48,679
Speaker 1: staring to each other's eye. It was very epic love story.

1316
01:18:49,160 --> 01:18:53,479
Speaker 1: Um kind of beats that. It was hitting. Um. You

1317
01:18:53,640 --> 01:18:57,599
Speaker 1: and McGregor was so cute, and he was like, I

1318
01:18:57,640 --> 01:19:02,680
Speaker 1: don't know, Philip, but I think he crushed it. He

1319
01:19:02,760 --> 01:19:06,559
Speaker 1: certainly did that that looking away kind of thing really

1320
01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:09,480
Speaker 1: well too, because he would be like, oh, really is

1321
01:19:09,479 --> 01:19:12,920
Speaker 1: is everything going good? Well, okay, let's you know, go go,

1322
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:14,519
Speaker 1: let's go do it, you know what I mean. The

1323
01:19:14,800 --> 01:19:16,559
Speaker 1: kinda would have a question, but then he just let

1324
01:19:16,560 --> 01:19:19,080
Speaker 1: it go and it's exactly what we were thinking. Like,

1325
01:19:19,200 --> 01:19:22,880
Speaker 1: m that's probably what he was doing. Literally. I have

1326
01:19:23,000 --> 01:19:27,559
Speaker 1: a personal connection too because um uh good friend and

1327
01:19:27,680 --> 01:19:30,200
Speaker 1: former boss of mine. His name is Joe Connolly. He's

1328
01:19:30,240 --> 01:19:33,559
Speaker 1: a prop master in Atlanta. I worked with him on

1329
01:19:34,080 --> 01:19:37,320
Speaker 1: The Vampire Diaries and Dynasty a little bit, uh, and

1330
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:38,840
Speaker 1: he's just one of the coolest people in the world

1331
01:19:39,400 --> 01:19:41,720
Speaker 1: and one of the best prop masters out there. And

1332
01:19:41,760 --> 01:19:44,320
Speaker 1: he did this movie and so I texted him that

1333
01:19:44,360 --> 01:19:46,439
Speaker 1: we were doing this story and that we watched the

1334
01:19:46,439 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 1: movie last night when it was so good, all those

1335
01:19:49,320 --> 01:19:53,000
Speaker 1: all those needles that Jim Carrey stabs into himself. It's

1336
01:19:53,600 --> 01:19:59,040
Speaker 1: classic Joe Connolly work, so good and disturbing. And Joe

1337
01:19:59,080 --> 01:20:03,519
Speaker 1: told me that they happen to be filming on a Friday. No,

1338
01:20:04,280 --> 01:20:07,360
Speaker 1: that's amazing. Had to stock the prop truck with glasses

1339
01:20:07,400 --> 01:20:10,840
Speaker 1: and hats and fake mustaches, just an anticipation that he

1340
01:20:10,880 --> 01:20:13,080
Speaker 1: would actually show up after he broke out of prison.

1341
01:20:13,240 --> 01:20:18,880
Speaker 1: Oh my god, just waiting for him. That's hilarious. They

1342
01:20:18,880 --> 01:20:21,080
Speaker 1: were all looking around like, well, keep an eye out,

1343
01:20:21,520 --> 01:20:23,519
Speaker 1: and he just shows up. Like Actually, on the director,

1344
01:20:25,160 --> 01:20:28,320
Speaker 1: I've been directing the movie the whole time. Actually, I've

1345
01:20:28,360 --> 01:20:32,439
Speaker 1: been Jim Carrey this whole time. Whoa good trick. If

1346
01:20:32,439 --> 01:20:35,719
Speaker 1: anyone could do it, it's Steven Russell. So the book

1347
01:20:36,600 --> 01:20:39,280
Speaker 1: I Love You Philip Morris came out in two thousand

1348
01:20:39,320 --> 01:20:42,960
Speaker 1: and three, and it caught the interests of these filmmakers,

1349
01:20:43,160 --> 01:20:46,360
Speaker 1: Glenn Fakara and John Requa, who they said they saw

1350
01:20:46,360 --> 01:20:49,160
Speaker 1: it as an epic love story, which they totally presented

1351
01:20:49,280 --> 01:20:52,080
Speaker 1: as a movie. Um, but the two people in the

1352
01:20:52,120 --> 01:20:55,400
Speaker 1: love story happened to be gay, right, Um, well, it's

1353
01:20:55,400 --> 01:20:59,840
Speaker 1: two thousand three so when they pitched the story Fakara recall,

1354
01:21:00,160 --> 01:21:03,160
Speaker 1: they said, great, sounds like an amazing story. Can you

1355
01:21:03,200 --> 01:21:09,120
Speaker 1: turn Philip into a woman? Wow? First of all, no sense,

1356
01:21:10,080 --> 01:21:11,960
Speaker 1: it does not work at all. How are they going

1357
01:21:12,000 --> 01:21:14,080
Speaker 1: to meet in prison? How are they going to meet

1358
01:21:14,120 --> 01:21:16,280
Speaker 1: in prison? That was my first question. How are they

1359
01:21:16,320 --> 01:21:18,320
Speaker 1: going to meet in prison? If she is a woman,

1360
01:21:18,360 --> 01:21:20,840
Speaker 1: they don't go together, like they don't live together in

1361
01:21:20,840 --> 01:21:23,759
Speaker 1: the same prison. And the producer says, yeah, you're the writer,

1362
01:21:23,840 --> 01:21:29,360
Speaker 1: that's your job to figure out. Sorry, Riptorn Megan work.

1363
01:21:29,720 --> 01:21:34,200
Speaker 1: I wanted to add this quote in from a NAM

1364
01:21:34,200 --> 01:21:38,320
Speaker 1: official who worked for the company that he was CFO

1365
01:21:38,400 --> 01:21:41,759
Speaker 1: at right. He said in an interview that Steve Russell

1366
01:21:41,880 --> 01:21:44,439
Speaker 1: was still one of the best CFOs I've ever worked with.

1367
01:21:45,760 --> 01:21:48,000
Speaker 1: See Steven still has a future. We would just let

1368
01:21:48,080 --> 01:21:52,320
Speaker 1: him out of jail. No, but yeah, that's funny. They

1369
01:21:52,360 --> 01:21:55,679
Speaker 1: say not a single Magic marker has gone missing. Nothing

1370
01:21:56,080 --> 01:21:59,439
Speaker 1: has seventeen at the time of this article, which was

1371
01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:01,639
Speaker 1: I think a couple of years ago, but they were

1372
01:22:01,680 --> 01:22:04,519
Speaker 1: like seventeen Friday that their teints have gone by. No,

1373
01:22:04,720 --> 01:22:07,960
Speaker 1: but nothing, you know, apparently they do amp up their

1374
01:22:08,000 --> 01:22:10,240
Speaker 1: security on Friday, that their team short because they do

1375
01:22:10,320 --> 01:22:13,439
Speaker 1: know about that. So maybe this will be his first escape,

1376
01:22:13,560 --> 01:22:16,360
Speaker 1: not on Friday and their teen. Look if if it

1377
01:22:16,400 --> 01:22:20,000
Speaker 1: turns out that he doesn't have an impacted spine, if

1378
01:22:20,000 --> 01:22:24,240
Speaker 1: a wheelchair is bullshit. If he's actually like super healthy

1379
01:22:24,320 --> 01:22:26,040
Speaker 1: and he's just been playing them this whole time, and

1380
01:22:26,080 --> 01:22:28,679
Speaker 1: he's got some investment accounts somewhere where he's made millions

1381
01:22:28,680 --> 01:22:31,560
Speaker 1: of dollars and when he gets out he's going to

1382
01:22:31,640 --> 01:22:35,800
Speaker 1: be sipping drinks on a beach in Mexico somewhere. Then great,

1383
01:22:36,040 --> 01:22:42,200
Speaker 1: you know, fifth escape, You're free. But he did also

1384
01:22:42,400 --> 01:22:45,480
Speaker 1: say when he was kind of describing his prison experience,

1385
01:22:45,600 --> 01:22:49,519
Speaker 1: he was talking about how um Texas prides itself on

1386
01:22:49,520 --> 01:22:52,759
Speaker 1: only spending two dollars a day to feed their inmates.

1387
01:22:52,840 --> 01:22:57,880
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Um, So he's overweight, not just because

1388
01:22:57,920 --> 01:23:00,719
Speaker 1: of a sedentary lifestyle, but because he's literally getting chopped

1389
01:23:00,840 --> 01:23:04,840
Speaker 1: a spoonful of chopped ham boiled egg and mayonnaise with

1390
01:23:04,880 --> 01:23:08,280
Speaker 1: pickles in it, like apparently calls it cat food and

1391
01:23:08,320 --> 01:23:11,160
Speaker 1: he's like, they just that's what I eat. And so

1392
01:23:11,200 --> 01:23:13,360
Speaker 1: I'm fat now because he's scanned a lot of weight

1393
01:23:13,400 --> 01:23:15,800
Speaker 1: and he is ghostly pale. Yeah, he's very pale because

1394
01:23:15,800 --> 01:23:18,120
Speaker 1: he never sees the sun right. And then he also

1395
01:23:18,240 --> 01:23:21,559
Speaker 1: came out with a follow up, UM Life After Philip

1396
01:23:21,600 --> 01:23:25,480
Speaker 1: Morris UM, which is actually written as a stage playing.

1397
01:23:25,800 --> 01:23:28,600
Speaker 1: It's very interesting. Yeah. It kind of talks about his

1398
01:23:28,720 --> 01:23:31,400
Speaker 1: mostly his time in prison and how he feels now

1399
01:23:31,680 --> 01:23:35,080
Speaker 1: about Philip and everything. It is very interesting. It's very

1400
01:23:35,120 --> 01:23:37,080
Speaker 1: funny too. All the reviews were like I was dying

1401
01:23:37,160 --> 01:23:41,200
Speaker 1: laughing play. So he says that um, Steve McVicker and

1402
01:23:41,200 --> 01:23:43,360
Speaker 1: other writers who have come to visit him have really

1403
01:23:43,400 --> 01:23:45,599
Speaker 1: helped him grow as a person and a writer. So

1404
01:23:45,760 --> 01:23:47,919
Speaker 1: like writing is something that he is very much focused

1405
01:23:47,920 --> 01:23:50,599
Speaker 1: on in his time in prison. So I could see that.

1406
01:23:51,479 --> 01:23:53,360
Speaker 1: But he did it all for love. He did it

1407
01:23:53,400 --> 01:23:57,320
Speaker 1: all for love. Yeah, well, I am totally blown away

1408
01:23:57,360 --> 01:24:01,440
Speaker 1: by this story. It is altogether fast nating and exciting

1409
01:24:02,200 --> 01:24:04,920
Speaker 1: and challenging, I think because it really gives you a

1410
01:24:05,000 --> 01:24:07,519
Speaker 1: kind of a lot of moral conundrums too. It does

1411
01:24:08,120 --> 01:24:11,120
Speaker 1: because again it's like even if, even even if we

1412
01:24:11,160 --> 01:24:13,160
Speaker 1: sit here and talk about it, we slowly tend to

1413
01:24:13,160 --> 01:24:16,160
Speaker 1: shift back towards like yeah, go Stephen, and then it's like,

1414
01:24:17,120 --> 01:24:18,880
Speaker 1: wait a second course, correct, because it is not a

1415
01:24:18,920 --> 01:24:22,559
Speaker 1: good person. He just doesn't deserve to be tortured like this. Yeah,

1416
01:24:22,600 --> 01:24:24,479
Speaker 1: I think it's just because the punishment doesn't fit the

1417
01:24:24,520 --> 01:24:28,439
Speaker 1: crime is what really makes it like, well, I feel

1418
01:24:28,439 --> 01:24:33,080
Speaker 1: badly for Stephen because he's really suffering for And another

1419
01:24:33,160 --> 01:24:35,160
Speaker 1: point that people bring up a lot is that, of

1420
01:24:35,160 --> 01:24:37,400
Speaker 1: course he's stolen a lot less money than like the

1421
01:24:37,600 --> 01:24:42,479
Speaker 1: Enron guy, Goldman, Sachs SI, any of those investors, so

1422
01:24:42,520 --> 01:24:45,639
Speaker 1: it's like like no prison time and in fact got

1423
01:24:45,640 --> 01:24:48,200
Speaker 1: bonuses some of them for the theft that they already

1424
01:24:48,320 --> 01:24:52,360
Speaker 1: had so much money. It's like, it's so maddening to

1425
01:24:52,560 --> 01:24:56,240
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, so just a regular average joe who

1426
01:24:56,360 --> 01:24:59,040
Speaker 1: dares to steal any amount of money from anybody has

1427
01:24:59,080 --> 01:25:04,400
Speaker 1: to go to jail. Yeah, but some investor who sucks

1428
01:25:04,439 --> 01:25:06,439
Speaker 1: and has all the money in the world already, if

1429
01:25:06,479 --> 01:25:08,240
Speaker 1: they're going to do whatever we can to cover his

1430
01:25:08,320 --> 01:25:11,679
Speaker 1: ass or her ass and keep them out of jail.

1431
01:25:12,160 --> 01:25:15,080
Speaker 1: So yeah, the average Joe of me is going, well,

1432
01:25:15,160 --> 01:25:17,720
Speaker 1: get Steven out of there, you know. I mean, I

1433
01:25:17,720 --> 01:25:20,360
Speaker 1: would wager that the people he stole money from, which

1434
01:25:20,400 --> 01:25:24,680
Speaker 1: is insurance companies and nam and banks, all probably have

1435
01:25:24,800 --> 01:25:28,240
Speaker 1: committed more egregious crimes than he ever did. You know

1436
01:25:28,479 --> 01:25:31,040
Speaker 1: they just you can't get caught for that. Give you

1437
01:25:32,080 --> 01:25:35,439
Speaker 1: who knows? That's my biggest speculation station of the night.

1438
01:25:36,120 --> 01:25:41,880
Speaker 1: But it's you all agree for everybody knows. All right. Well,

1439
01:25:42,720 --> 01:25:45,840
Speaker 1: such a good story. Thank you to Chelsea slash Woe

1440
01:25:45,960 --> 01:25:49,280
Speaker 1: I'm tripping on Instagram. This was a very good suggestion.

1441
01:25:49,320 --> 01:25:52,920
Speaker 1: Appreciate you. It took us on a very fun research journey.

1442
01:25:53,400 --> 01:25:57,960
Speaker 1: Thank you. In great movie recommendation is right, right, So yeah,

1443
01:25:58,040 --> 01:26:00,479
Speaker 1: tell us what you think about this story. We want

1444
01:26:00,479 --> 01:26:03,240
Speaker 1: to hear from you as always. Our email is Romance

1445
01:26:03,280 --> 01:26:05,680
Speaker 1: at i heeart media dot com. That's right, and you

1446
01:26:05,680 --> 01:26:08,519
Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at O Great,

1447
01:26:08,600 --> 01:26:11,600
Speaker 1: It's Eli, I'm at Dianamite Boom and of course you

1448
01:26:11,640 --> 01:26:15,040
Speaker 1: can reach the show at Riddic Romance and then please

1449
01:26:15,080 --> 01:26:17,960
Speaker 1: tune in for our next episode of course, and tell

1450
01:26:18,000 --> 01:26:20,519
Speaker 1: all your friends to tune in as well. We are.

1451
01:26:20,560 --> 01:26:21,840
Speaker 1: We're going to try and come back to you guys

1452
01:26:21,920 --> 01:26:25,360
Speaker 1: with some spooky stories this month for Halloween, so look

1453
01:26:25,400 --> 01:26:28,240
Speaker 1: forward to those, not just more Friday than thirteenth, but

1454
01:26:29,080 --> 01:26:32,719
Speaker 1: ghosts and courts and pirates and all kinds of crazy stuff.

1455
01:26:32,760 --> 01:26:37,080
Speaker 1: So stay tuned. Yeah, we'll see you next time. So

1456
01:26:37,280 --> 01:26:41,000
Speaker 1: long friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening to

1457
01:26:41,200 --> 01:26:45,280
Speaker 1: our show tell your friend's names. Uncle Sandance to listen

1458
01:26:45,320 --> 01:26:47,200
Speaker 1: to our show. Ridiculous roll Nance